Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury: Remember ‘quantitative easing’? It seems a long time ago that these were the buzz words of the moment but back in the years between 2009 and 2012 the Bank of England e-printed £375billion of cash to help out the ailing banks and investors at the height of the economic meltdown. Just give a thought to what could be achieved if some more quantitative easing were used to stimulate the economy, tackle climate change and boost employment.
A new programme could undertake the building of affordable, highly insulated new homes on mostly brown field sites and work towards making the UK’s 30million existing buildings super energy efficient, so reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy bills and fuel poverty. This would cost about £50billion a year – not much in comparison to the bailing out of the banks.
The recent autumn statement from the Chancellor promised us nothing for the long term benefit of the nation. The government is looking only as far as the election in May next year and has no thought for investment for the further future. The ‘Green Economy’ which, so far, has developed with little help from the government, already has created several thousand jobs around the country. Many thousands more jobs could be developed if a programme of energy efficiency was adopted nationwide.
This programme would take place in every city, town, village or hamlet in the country and provide job security, create local business opportunities and overall, aid the economy and help the climate too. Victoria Nicholls
No comments:
Post a Comment