David Maddox: Green scheme creates warm glow

Published on Sunday 30 November 2008 19:58

AFTER what seemed like months of vacuous subject debates, it was a genuine pleasure last week to meet a politician in Holyrood who has made a significant difference.

Andrew Cooper, the leader of the Green group on Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire, was the guest of Holyrood's two Green MSPs to promote an idea that could be the best thing to come out of the Scottish budget for 2009-10.

The scheme dreamed up by Mr Cooper and his three colleagues in 2006 is simple and effective. Every house in the council's jurisdiction would get free insulation if required. People did not have to pay or even ring the council.

Thousands of homes have now benefited from the scheme, and more homes were done in one year in Kirklees than in the whole of London with the UK government's own scheme.

Added to that, it has paid for itself in economic regeneration, with new jobs, and a company has set up its national insulation training centre in the area.

They also se up a scheme to attach alternative energy sources, such as solar panels, to people's homes for no cost, with the council just taking an equivalent stake in the property when it is sold.

These two ideas are the Scottish Greens' pitch in the current budget negotiations. The crucial vote will come with the budget in February.

At 100 million, the scheme is a drop in the ocean in a 30 billion budget, which would bring work in times of hardship, warm people's homes, save them money and make a big step towards bringing down those carbon emissions.

Politically, it would also be the biggest coup by any Green group in Europe and would be a realisation of the largely unfulfilled promise of the new politics of co-operation made by our political leaders.