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The Leader of St Edmundsbury Borough Council has written to Suffolk MPs asking them to back a call for a massive investment programme to help people to insulate their homes and cut their fuel bills.

Cllr John Griffiths is enlisting support for a national campaign that would see the six main energy companies matching pound for pound the contributions from householders to raise an extra £500 million a year. The scheme would lift half a million people out of fuel poverty, knock £200 a year off the energy bills of 10 million households and cut domestic carbon emissions by 20 per cent.

Cllr Griffiths explains,
“St Edmundsbury’s energy efficiency work and grant assistance for residential properties has contributed to at least a 24 per cent improvement in energy efficiency in the borough from 1996 to 2007. However our recent Housing Stock Condition Survey highlighted fuel poverty, excess cold and energy efficiency as continuing areas of concern, and despite rising fuel costs, take up of schemes run by energy suppliers has been low.

Thanks to our local knowledge and relationships with our residents we are well placed to change this and help people to cut their energy bills at the same time as helping the environment”

I believe that with the support of MPs we can convince the government of the value of this scheme, and I am writing to them to ask for their backing.”