Poll: Energy efficiency, renewables, and nature restoration are 'people's priorities' for Covid-19 package

As the government gears up to unveil the latest phase of its coronavirus recovery plan next week, new findings have demonstrated that a signficant majority of the British public want it to comprise measures that tackle pollution and climate change.

A poll published today by the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) reveals that 67 per cent of Brits think a recovery package that fails to tackle pollution and climate change would be bad for the economy in the long run. Even more people - some 69 per cent of respondents - said such a plan would be a sign the government has the "wrong priorities".

More than half of those polled - 53 per cent - said government bailouts to polluting companies like airlines and carmakers should come with environmental conditions attached.

Renewable energy topped a list of the public's preferred sectors for job creation, securing support from 46 per cent of respondents. Nature conservation and energy efficiency were the next most popular choices, polling at 37 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.

The consensus in favour of a green recovery package held true regardless of age, region, and political affiliation, CEN said, noting that 62 per cent of respondents who voted Conservative in the last general election said a plan that failed to deliver on the environmental issues would be 'the wrong thing to do'.

"From this polling there is clear agreement - among leaver and remainer, northerner and southerner, Tory and Labour - on the need to build back better after coronavirus," said Jerome Mayhew, Conservative MP for Broadland and a CEN Caucus member. "As the G7 country with the fastest per capita GDP growth and the fastest decarbonisation rate since 1990, we know there is no contradiction between a thriving economy and a healthy environment. That is why I hope the Chancellor's recovery package next week will tackle pollution and climate change, whilst creating jobs and prosperity across the UK."  

When it came to preferred types of infrastructure investments, more than half of those surveyed said they wanted local schools, hospitals, and care homes to be made more energy efficient and 49 per cent singled out energy efficiency upgrades for older homes as a priority. Some 45 per cent of people singled out improving bus and train services and 38 per cent of people wanted to see investment in walking and cycle routes.

Building more roads and expanding local airports, on the other hand, were the least popular projects selected by survey respondents.

"The public clearly wants the government to prioritise green over brown sectors," said Katherine Fletcher, Conservative MP for South Ribble. "That's why the recovery package should support investment in the rapidly-growing low-carbon sectors that are already creating jobs across the country, such as our world leading offshore wind sector in the North of England."

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister promised that the forthcoming recovery package would "build back greener", flagging plans for cycle superhighways, new zero carbon homes, zero emission buses, boosted flood defences, and tree planting programmes. However, further details of the government's recovery plan will be unveiled next week by the Chancellor and campaigners remain fearful that the package could see decisions on a raft of key green policies and programmes deferred until the autumn.

CEN director Sam Hall urged the government to heed the survey's results and ensure next week's announcement matches the "welcome green recovery rhetoric" adopted by Ministers and the Prime Minister in recent months.

"To avoid voters' disapproval, the Chancellor must use his statement next week to set out a comprehensive and ambitious package of measures to level up the country, create jobs, and get us on track to net zero," Hall said. "This polling shows strong support for prioritising local green infrastructure over brown. I hope the government now seizes this opportunity to deliver on the people's priorities for the recovery."

Phillip Dunne, Conservative MP for Ludlow and chair the Environment Audit Committee (EAC), also urged the government to emulate the public's enthusiasm for energy efficiency measures and invest in building energy efficiency programmes in its forthcoming recovery package. "Given the huge potential of energy efficiency to make homes cheaper and healthier for people to live in, and to create jobs across the country, it is time for the Government to introduce new measures in next week's recovery package to enable people to insulate their homes," he said.

"It is particularly imperative action is taken soon to address energy efficiency in homes as it is crucial to meeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and is why my Select Committee has recently launched an inquiry on this important issue."  

Reports last week indicated the plans for a £9.2bn upgrade programme promised in the Conservative Manifesto are at risk of being watered down, after sources indicted that the Prime Minister's top advisor Dominic Cummings regarded building upgrades "boring".

Any move to water down promised energy efficiency funding would go against the advice of the EAC, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), and a host of studies over recent months and years that have highlighted how energy efficiency upgrades represent one of the most effective forms of 'shovel-ready' infrastructure for both creating jobs and tackling carbon emissions.

The poll, which was conducted by Ipsos Mori, surveyed more than 2,100 British adults between the age of 16 and 75.

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