IN 2012 around 2.3 million homes improved their insulation.

Then David Cameron decided to “cut the green crap”, the subsidies were removed, and the number of homes being insulated better crashed to around 230,000.

The consequence is that homes in the UK pay £170 each every year more than they would have if the home improvement campaign had continued. We have some of the most inefficient homes in Europe and that impacts on our pockets.

Cutting energy use saves on bills and saves the planet. It is something that has been advocated by Green campaigners for over 20 years and yet there still isn’t a nationwide programme in place to help people to modernise.

As bills rise and we send even larger quantities of money to Russia and to Saudi Arabia to fund extremist ideologies there will be a lot of pressure to subsidise fossilised technologies and to cut support for green initiatives.

The harsh reality is that if environmentalists had been listened to and effective action taken in good time then we would not need to worry half so much about rising energy costs.

It may be very late in the day to start taking serious action to get us free from dependence of unpleasant regimes and harmful products but sometimes in life it is a case of better late than never.

Andy Brown

Cononley