All London homes to be offered free insulation and energy advice

Consistent campaigning for energy efficiency has at last been followed by action in the nation's capital.

The London Development Agency has proposed to offer free energy saving measures to every London home and Green Party member of the London Assembly Darren Johnson said today he was pleased that his consistent questioning and raising of the issue has paid off.

The announcement follows a major investigation by the London Assembly's Environment Committee, which chaired by Darren Johnson, which flagged up the success of a free insulation scheme in Huddersfield which is already delivering lower bills, reduced CO2 emissions and new jobs.

The new London scheme represents a major u-turn by the LDA who were previously planning to abandon home insulation work altogether. The scheme will offer:

* "Ten easy measures" free to all London households (3m total). These measures include: hot water tank insulation, draught proofing, radiator panels, low energy lightbulbs, standby switches etc. The anticipated take up is 1.3m homes and this should generate CO2 savings of 1.4m tonnes per annum.
* Installation of more major measures in 800,000 homes (including loft and cavity wall insulation, heating controls upgrade etc) yielding a further 720,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum. It is unclear at this stage whether this will also be free. The average cash saving to householders taking part in the scheme is estimated at £230 per annum.
* The scheme will be delivered via a street by street, door knocking approach as in Huddersfield.
Initial analysis and comparison with schemes outside London suggests that 2,200 additional jobs will be created as a result of the scheme and a major training programme is likely to be needed to ensure the availability of skilled labour from year (1).

Darren Johnson AM said today:

"Ever since the home energy saving scheme introduced by Ken Livingstone was set for cancellation by the new administration, I have been pushing Mayor Boris Johnson to turn his vague promises to help Londoners insulate their homes into a comprehensive and substantial programme. The new LDA proposals do just that.

"I am pleased that my proposal for a free London-wide scheme to cut fuel bills and save energy has been taken up. It is disappointing that progress was so delayed by wranglings between the LDA and the Mayor over who will pay. However, we now have the foundations of an excellent scheme and I will be pushing to ensure that both cavity wall insulation and loft insulation are also offered free of charge in order to maximise the benefits."

Mr Johnson, who is also the Green Party's national spokesperson on trade and industry, concluded that he would like to see the whole of the UK pursue the best possible programme of domestic energy-saving measures.

Party leader Caroline Lucas MEP will say in her speech to the party conference tomorrow (Friday 20 March) that a nationwide programme along these lines would generate almost 140,000 UK jobs.