The ongoing fiasco surrounding todays’s Government announcement on future support for renewable energy will be bad for Cambridge, warns Cambridge Labour Party spokesperson Daniel Zeichner. The Government has for weeks been locked in an internal battle over cuts to support for renewable energy which are needed to deliver future carbon targets and to stimulate a green-job based economic recovery.

Daniel Zeichner, who is a member of Labour’s national Policy Review Group looking at green jobs, says that Cambridge could lead the economic recovery, if the right Government policies were in place, and investors were given long-term confidence:

“The private sector is sitting on huge amounts of uninvested capital, and we have over a million young people without jobs. In Cambridge just a few weeks ago we heard leading financiers saying that the money is available to start a massive scheme to lift the energy-efficiency of homes, public-buildings and offices across the city -; but without the right policy framework, nothing happens. Today’s announcement that support for renewables will be cut  by 10% rather than 25% is over-shadowed by clear signals that the commitment to cutting carbon-based electricity production will be reviewed again next year. In such circumstances, investors will not make the long-term commitment that is needed. The UK’s progress on energy and climate-change is now stalled, and companies and jobs in Cambridge will be the loser.”