It's been reported that in the spending review announcement on 11 June, Labour's manifesto pledge of of £13.2 billion this Parliament for the Warm Homes Plan may be cut back. This funding was already a significant step back from Labour's original green investment plans, and is less than needed to meet the UK's climate targets. Cutting the budget further for action to make the UK's homes energy-efficient, and to install low-carbon heating would be a disastrous false economy. We need to invest in our homes:

To fight the climate crisis - we use more gas in this country for heating and cooking than we do for generating electricity. The Climate Change Committee say the government needs to be much more ambitious in retrofit plans to meet our climate targets.

To end fuel poverty - one in nine households in the UK are in fuel poverty, and many more of us are overpaying on our bills because of poor insulation and high gas prices.

To create jobs and help the economy - if the budget for home insulation is cut, jobs will be lost, but if the pledged funding is maintained, 9,000 new jobs could be created in communities around the country - and many more than this if it were increased.

Please ask your MP to tell the Chancellor we need to increase funding for retrofit, NOT cut it - with a proper warm homes strategy giving security for residents, for the workforce and for our climate.