Jeremy Corbyn to make pledge as part of party’s ‘green industrial revolution’
Labour have announced plans to fit solar panels to 1.75m homes lived in by socially housed or low-income households as part of its promised “green industrial revolution” to try to combat climate change and boost jobs.
The programme is due to be announced by Jeremy Corbyn and the shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, at an event in Yorkshire on Thursday.
It would involve solar panels being fitted to a million social homes as part of scheduled updates to social housing.
Labour said this would provide enough power to give them free energy, saving an average of £117 a year on bills. Any spare power would be put into the national grid.
Another 750,000 low-income households would have the chance to have the panels fitted through interest-free loans or grants.
The party estimated the policy would create 16,900 jobs and save 7.1m tonnes of CO2 a year, equivalent to taking 4m cars off the roads.
It comes after Labour’s pledge in February to introduce a wider set of policies to simultaneously tackle the climate crisis and create large numbers of high-skilled jobs in the green economy.
Read more: The Guardian