Every household can apply for a £5,000 voucher under a £3billion drive for ‘greener’ homes, hospitals and schools to support 140,000 jobs announced today.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak insisted he wanted to see a ‘green recovery with concern for the environment at its heart’ as he confirmed the plans in the Commons.
In his mini-Budget, Mr Sunak confirmed a £2billion Green Homes Grant from September will mean homeowners and landlords can get grants up to £5,000 for insulation and other energy efficiency measures.
Some of the lowest income households will get the full costs of energy efficiency refits paid up to £10,000.
The funding also includes £1billion to improve the energy efficiency and low carbon heating for schools, hospitals, prisons, military bases and other public buildings and £50 million to pilot ways to cut carbon from social housing.
The UK’s coronavirus bailout has now soared to £310billion after Mr Sunak also pledged to subsidise meals out, hand £9billion in ‘bonuses’ to firms who bring back furloughed staff and cuts to VAT and stamp duty.
In his mini-Budget, Rishi Sunak confirmed a £2billion Green Homes Grant from September will mean homeowners and landlords can get grants up to £5,000 for insulation and other energy efficiency measures (file picture)
The Chancellor (pictured at Cabinet this morning) insisted he wanted to see a ‘green recovery with concern for the environment at its heart’ as he confirmed the plans in the Commons
The UK’s coronavirus bailout has now soared to £310billion after Mr Sunak also pledged to subsidise meals out, hand £9billion in ‘bonuses’ to firms who bring back furloughed staff and cuts to VAT and stamp duty.
At a pivotal moment in the coronavirus crisis, the Chancellor admitted that ‘hardship lies ahead’ but he was ditching ‘dogma’ to ‘do what is right’ with a £30billion package – on top of the staggering £280billion already splashed out – as the country ‘opens up’ from lockdown.
In an unprecedented move, he said the government will fund up to 50 per cent of people’s meals out at struggling restaurants from Monday to Wednesday, to a maximum of £10 per head.
Every business that brings back one of the 9million furloughed employees on a decent wage and keeps them on the books until January will also get £1,000.
VAT is being slashed from 20 per cent to 5 per cent for the hospitality industry until January in another huge intervention – and stamp duty is being axed on all homes worth up to £500,000 until March.
There is also a £2billion ‘kickstarter’ scheme to pay wages for young people, with Mr Sunak saying one of his main fears is that the meltdown will result in a ‘generation left behind’. Huge subsidies are being offered to insulate and make 650,000 homes more environmentally friendly.
The extraordinary cash splashing received broad support from the hospitality sector, although there were doubts over how effective the expensive jobs guarantees will prove and whether a stamp duty cut will merely ‘front load’ activity.
However, Mr Sunak made clear the largesse cannot continue much longer amid growing Tory anxiety about the scale of the debt being racked up by the government. There are warnings that if interest rates rise even modestly servicing the £2trillion-plus debt pile could cost more than the defence and education budgets put together.
Including loans and other guarantees, the government has now committed over £310billion, while the Bank of England has also expanded its quantitative easing programme – effectively printing more money – by £300billion this year.
Pressed by Conservative MPs in the Commons this afternoon, Mr Sunak that while he was acting now to prevent ‘scarring’ of the economy, ‘once we get through this crisis we must retain and sustain public finances’.
Mr Sunak claimed that his eco-boosting measures would make 650,000 homes more energy efficient, save households up to £300 on their annual bills, cut carbon emissions by 500,000 tonnes and support 140,000 jobs.
Campaigners welcomed the moves to invest in energy efficiency, widely seen as one of the best ways to boost jobs across the UK while cutting emissions.
But they warned that levels of funding were well below what was needed to address the climate and nature crises, and that the ‘jury is still very much out’ on how green the Government’s recovery will be.
Rosie Rogers, from Greenpeace UK, whose activists changed the road signs at Parliament Square so they read ‘Green Recovery’ in every direction, said: ‘All roads must now lead to a green recovery – there is no alternative option.’
She urged: ‘An initial £15 billion cash injection in green ‘shovel ready’ projects would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, almost immediately, right across the country, while making transport greener, homes warmer, energy bills lower and restoring nature.’
Chris Venables, head of politics at Green Alliance, said: ‘Today’s speech could mark a really positive first step on the green recovery, but only if this ambition is continued throughout the rest of the year, and particularly in the autumn budget.
‘We urgently need to see a clear funding strategy for supporting public transport in its time of crisis, a long-term strategy to ensure all buildings are warm and cheap to run, reversing the catastrophic declines in nature, and investing in the technology of the future.
‘The jury is still very much out on how green the UK Government’s recovery will be, and we’ll be watching over the coming weeks and months.’
There have been widespread calls for a green recovery, including calls for the Government to deliver on its £9.2billion manifesto pledge for energy efficiency and investment in schemes to help nature recover, and make sure business bailouts have ‘green strings’ attached.