HELP CONSUMERS SAVE MONEY AND SAVE THE PLANET - WELSH LIB DEMS

12.00.00am GMT Tue 1st Dec 2009

Today, the Welsh Liberal Democrats called for the Government to launch an ambitious national 'green loans' scheme to fund energy efficiency upgrades and the installation of household renewables in every single Welsh home by 2020, and to promote the idea that going green can cut people's bills.

Under the Liberal Democrat plan, 'green loans' would be offered to all households, through a systematic house-by-house, street-by-street approach. Green loans would cover the upfront capital costs of major household energy efficiency upgrades and the installation of household renewables. The loans would be paid back on an affordable 'Pay As You Save' basis through household energy bills.

The Living in Wales Survey 2008, published yesterday, asked householders who had carried out 'environmental activities', such as improving their home's energy efficiency or purchasing energy efficient products, in the last 12 months for two or three reasons why they had done so. 50.5% said they had done so to save money, while 48.4% chose the option 'to be more "green"'.

The survey also revealed a significant disparity between the number of households carrying out energy efficiency measures taken in social housing compared to owner-occupied housing. While nearly 70% of owner-occupied households had taken at least one of the measures in the survey, less than half of those in local authority or housing association owned housing had done so.

Research by the Energy Saving Trust has found that 27% of people they surveyed felt they had done everything they possibly could to reduce their bill after they had made one improvement such as insulation.

A recent BBC Cymru survey of Welsh attitudes towards climate change, released yesterday, revealed that:

· While 90% of people in Wales believe climate change is happening, just 52% believe that individuals have a role to play in combating it.

· 76% think that altering their lifestyle is worthwhile but 32% think that making those changes is too expensive

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Roger Williams said:

"The government is completely failing to harness the huge appetite in Wales to take on climate change.

"Everyone has a role to play in cutting emissions and everyone can benefit in the process. But even though most people recognize that they will save money in the medium term, the upfront costs of going green is still a major deterrent.

"It's not surprising that people who own their own homes are more likely to take energy efficiency measures than local authorities or housing associations, but it does show that we need to do more to assist those in social housing to introduce energy saving measures, as these are likely to be the people who are struggling most.

"We would take a house-by-house, street-by-street approach, offering every single Welsh household a green loan and the opportunity to dramatically cut their energy bills and carbon emissions by 2020, without the upfront costs."

Cardiff Central MP Jenny Willott added:

"Our green loans policy creates a win-win-win situation.

"It would dramatically cut fuel poverty in Wales, which currently affects 320,000 households. It would slash household carbon emissions which account for 27% of all our emissions. And it will create thousands of Welsh green jobs.

"Combined with the new feed-in tariffs for household renewables, the scheme would allow every household to benefit from making money back from selling the electricity they generate to the grid.

"Our green loans scheme is the most ambitious proposal of any of the parties and exactly what people in Wales need to start their own fight against climate change and against rising energy bills."

ENDS

Notes:

Living in Survey Wales 2008 figures on households carrying out 'environmental activities' in the last 12 months is available here:

http://wales.gov.uk/docs/statistics/2009/090430liw08environmenten.xls?lang=en