Cost of living
The cost of living crisis has been our communities hitting hard for over a year - and there’s no obvious end in sight. Soaring energy bills and the increase in the cost of everyday essentials have forced households into impossible decisions. As so many times before, the government has failed to recognise the severity of the situation and offer the immediate support that’s so badly needed. The Greens have a plan to address this crisis that benefits people and the planet, giving the help that's needed right now and looking ahead to sure-up our energy supply for the future in the cheapest, greenest way and insulating millions of homes to cut the cost of living for good.
3 Green priorities
- Warmer homes, lower bills: A £250 billion plan to insulate 10 million homes over the next 10 years - funded by an emergency package of taxes on the super-rich and biggest polluters; emergency insulation grants to help those at risk of fuel poverty.
- Cheaper, cleaner energy: Investment in renewable energy, including onshore wind - the cheapest way to generate electricity - to end our dependence on fossil fuels; break the link between electricity and gas prices so that the lower cost of electricity generated by renewables is reflected in cheaper household bills.
- Immediate relief for households: including a £40/week uplift to Universal Credit and equivalent legacy benefits; a ban on no-fault evictions and a freeze on private rents; campaign for free school meals for all primary and secondary school children; 35 hours of free childcare for all from the age of 9 months.
Warmer homes, lower bills
- The cheapest energy bill is the one you don’t have to pay because your home is so well-insulated that it needs little or no heating.
- The Green Party has a plan to provide £250 billion for local authorities to insulate and upgrade 10 million homes over the next ten years
- This investment would be funded by reform to the tax system to ensure the wealthiest 1% and the biggest polluters pay their fair share.
- The tax reform would include a super-rich tax on assets of the wealthiest 1% of households which would raise in the region of £70bn; a proper loophole-free windfall tax on the dirty profits of fossil fuel companies; and a carbon tax to make the biggest polluters pay for their destructive activities.
- The Green Party’s council-led insulation plan would bring down domestic energy bills for good in the longer term. In the shorter term, we would provide an emergency grant to homeowners, landlords and councils to fund immediate insulation improvements to those at risk of fuel poverty, so that those who need support most urgently get it first.
Cheaper, cleaner energy
- At a time when we desperately need an expansion of domestic renewable energy production to reduce both bills and emissions, the Government has doubled down on fossil fuels, granting new oil and gas licences in the North Sea and even approving a new coal mine in Cumbria.
- The Government’s own windfall tax - the “energy profits levy” - has a giant loophole which incentivises further destructive fossil fuel extraction because of a tax allowance on investments in new fossil fuel extraction in the North Sea.
- Instead of locking us into even more years of dependency on fossil fuel extraction, the Green Party would immediately impose a proper windfall tax on the energy companies’ dirty profits of war and use the tax revenue to accelerate a green transition.
- Greens would invest more in onshore wind, which is the cheapest way to generate electricity. We’ve calculated that offshore and onshore wind needs to provide 70% of the UK’s electricity by 2030 - that means we need to massively ramp up onshore and offshore wind and solar and provide financial rewards to households and community run renewable energy projects.
- We would invest in Green jobs, including a retraining guarantee for existing oil and gas workers, as well as those who have recently left the sector.
- The UK must immediately take the simple and overdue step of breaking the link between electricity and gas prices, to end the absurd situation where even when electricity is being generated cheaply from renewables, everyone pays the much higher cost of electricity produced by gas power stations.
Immediate relief
The Green Party’s approach is to prioritise people and planet. That means our policies in many other areas are also geared towards helping ordinary people and reducing the cost of living.
- UC uplift: Recent research showed that 90% of low-income households on Universal Credit are currently going without essentials, so the Green Party would provide a £40 weekly uplift to Universal Credit, and equivalent legacy benefits.
- Energy support: Greens have advocated for more targeted fuel subsidies for people vulnerable to the cold and those whose home energy use is higher than average as a result of a disability.
- UBI: Introduce a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to cover every adult’s basic needs. This would be an unconditional payment for all UK residents regardless of their employment status.
- Housing: An immediate cap on rent increases as well as a ban on no-fault evictions to give households the security they need during these difficult and uncertain times. Read more in our housing briefing.
- Transport: Introduce a £1 single fare on all local buses routes (A One Pound Fare To Take You There), free bus travel for everyone under 22 and improvements to bus services. Read more about the plan in our transport briefing.
- Food poverty: Call on the government to provide free school meals for all children in primary and secondary school to help families with the financial pressures of the cost of living crisis and ensure all children have a fair start in life. Read more in our free school meals briefing.
- Childcare: 35 hours a week of free childcare for all from the age of nine months to help families manage the overwhelming cost of early years care and allow parents greater flexibility to return to work. Read more in our health and social care briefing.