Proposals by the Green Party to insulate millions of UK homes is a 'reminder of an environmental and social necessity that seems to have fallen off the political agenda in recent years", according to the Federation of Master Builders.

In its general election manifesto, the Party has pledged to retrofit nine million existing homes across the country to increase energy efficiency.

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said with one in four British households living in fuel poverty, the programme would provide a "significant economic stimulus and create thousands of jobs".


"A serious programme of investment to retrofit existing properties is sorely needed to bring British homes, which are among the oldest in Europe, up to scratch and limit ever-spiralling energy bills and high levels of fuel poverty," he said.

"There's a danger that in our drive to increase the number of new build homes, the subject of how we make our existing ones fit for modern living will continue to be neglected.

"At a time when both the Conservatives and Labour are proposing tinkering with the private energy market to push down bills, an ambitious retrofitting programme offers a more elegant, simpler alternative that could start on June 9th and would provide a significant economic stimulus and create thousands of jobs.

"One in four British households live in fuel poverty and a major factor behind this is the poor energy efficiency of much of our existing housing stock. Moreover, taken together our homes account for over a quarter of all carbon emissions. The Green Party has recognised that both of these issues need to be tackled together and whoever wins the election would do well to take this lesson on board."

(LM)