Scrapping the government’s commitment to key measures to bring energy efficiency improvements to homes would cost tens of thousands of future UK jobs, research obtained by the Guardian has shown.The energy companies obligation Eco is likely to provide 46,000 jobs within the next two years, according to the Association for the Conservation of Energy, in an analysis using the government’s own estimates of employment.Most of those jobs – the majority of which are “blue collar” jobs in installing insulation, new boilers and construction projects – are now potentially at risk following government backtracking.If the scheme were abandoned, as some have called for, at least 30,000 of these jobs would be at risk.Scaling back the scheme, rather than abandoning it, would also result in significant job losses: halving the main requirements would cut employment by 10,000 people in the next year and an additional potential 7,500 future jobs would be foregone. Removing one of the main components of the scheme, which is aimed at people on low incomes, would see 28,000 jobs lost.Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said: “The vast majority of these jobs would be blue collared, and often semi-skilled. They would frequently be not even in SMEs, but in micro-businesses, precisely the companies that the government is relying upon to ensure economic recovery. Hammering these home improvement schemes makes no sense.”
via U-turn over energy efficiency rules could risk 30,000 jobs | Environment | The Guardian.
U-turn over energy efficiency rules could risk 30,000 jobs
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