A petition has been launched after new data revealed that 56 per cent of homes in St Albans District are "poorly insulated".

According to Friends of the Earth, five million households in England and Wales will remain in fuel poverty this year.

The charity's St Albans branch has started a petition calling on St Albans and Harpenden MPs Daisy Cooper and Bim Afolami to take action.

READ MORE

St Albans District for Warm Homes' Amanda Yorwerth said: “No one in St Albans District should be pushed into extreme fuel poverty or have to see their community choose between heating and eating.

"The sheer scale of households struggling to pay bills, forced to go without or being pushed into debt shows that urgent action is needed.

"The government must address one of the key drivers behind our hyper-inflated bills – the UK’s poorly insulated housing stock. 

                                                                                    

Get more stories like this delivered to your inbox every week by signing up to our newsletter.

                                                                                    

“With so few homes properly insulated in the neighbourhoods that are struggling most, the government must roll out a rapid, street-by-street programme of insulation targeting these areas first.

"This will save people hundreds of pounds each year on their energy bills and reduce the harmful emissions that cause climate change.”

Daisy Cooper MP's response

Herts Advertiser: Daisy Cooper MP claims Liberal Democrats have been leading the debate on tackling the cost-of-living crisis.Daisy Cooper MP claims Liberal Democrats have been leading the debate on tackling the cost-of-living crisis. (Image: Archant)

St Albans MP Daisy Cooper commented: "In Parliament, Liberal Democrats have been leading the debate on tackling the cost-of-living crisis.

"We first called for a windfall tax on the unexpected super-profits of the big oil and gas companies, in October 2021 - eighteen months ago.

"The money that could have been raised, if it had been brought in straight away, would have enabled us to double the winter fuel allowance, double the warm homes grant, and kickstart a ten-year home insultation programme so people could live in warmer homes and slash their energy bills in the future.

"Whilst I'm pleased that the government finally adopted at least a weak version of the windfall tax in the middle of 2022, it is disappointing that it took so long and that they have only did so in a half-hearted way, raising only £5 billion rather than £11 billion as the Lib Dems had proposed."

St Albans Council secures highest insulation grants

Herts Advertiser: Cllr Jacqui Taylor branded insulation a top priority.Cllr Jacqui Taylor branded insulation a top priority. (Image: Archant)

St Albans City and District Council's Cllr Jacqui Taylor added: "It's a top priority for the Liberal Democrat administration to insulate peoples' homes and that's why I'm incredibly proud that we have just successfully secured more than £10 million in grants to insulate local authority homes - the largest amount secured by any council of our size.

"This was achieved because of the painstaking work and dedication the administration has put into carrying out detailed surveys to understand what is needed to insulate each of the many different housing types in our portfolio.

"Without this ongoing effort over the last four years to catch up on the neglect of the previous Conservative administration, we'd never have been in a position to take this important work forward.

"As the Friends of the Earth figures show, this work couldn't start soon enough, and we're delighted that we're already close to completing the first phase of almost 200 homes in this project."

The charity's petition currently has 162 signatures, and is targeting 200 overall.