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George Osborne unveils Conservative Green Policies
On 16 April 09, The Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne gave his proposals for a greener future at an event organised by the UK Green Building Council and held at The Building Centre, Store Street London.
The Shadow Chancellor declared that what was needed in next week´s budget were ‘policies that don´t just help today but also help tomorrow’, suggesting that the kind of recovery, after the recession, that we aim for should be built on the ‘new Conservative culture of conservative saving and investment’ rather than a culture of spending and borrowing.
The areas of improvement laid out by the Shadow Chancellor included the call for Britain to increase its expertise in green technology where we should be in the forefront rather than ‘in the trailing wake’ of the green technology revolution – currently the UK is lagging far behind Germany and France amongst others.
Osborne´s suggestions included the availability of a £6,500 grant for each home in Britain to spend on energy saving equipment which, if taken up by 50% of homes in the UK, would amount to a £20bn investment in green technology.
The Shadow Chancellor also criticised the proposal by the government to increase the number of electric cars as there is not the infrastructure to charge these cars, prompting Osborne to criticise this proposal as not fully thought through.
The Shadow Chancellor summed up his message by saying that we should ‘save and invest for tomorrow not spend and borrow for today.’