Party Manifestos

[ALEO Admin]

Most of the major political parties have now published their manifestos in the run-up to the general election on 8 June 2017.

Carbon Brief have produced a handy table summarising key policies from the party manifestos on climate and energy policies, followed by a useful discussion of the proposals. See: https://www.carbonbrief.org/election-20 ... ate-change

Under the heading of 'Energy Bills' Carbon Brief, say that:

...Labour promise a specific energy bill price cap of £1,000 per year, the Conservatives promise “a safeguard tariff cap that will extend the price protection currently in place for some vulnerable customers to more customers”. The SNP is also campaigning for a price cap on standard variable tariffs....The Lib Dems instead say they will “reduce energy bills permanently by improving home insulation”. UKIP says it will remove VAT from domestic fuel and scrap green levies “to reduce household bills by an average of £170”.
...
The Labour manifesto promises to insulate four million homes “as an infrastructure priority”. The Lib Dems want to insulate 4m homes by 2022 and bring all homes in England to band C efficiency by 2035. The Conservatives want to bring all fuel-poor homes to band C by 2030. The Green Party wants to insulate 9m homes, as part of “a national programme of insulation and retrofitting”.
...
The Greens pledge to reintroduce zero-carbon standards for new homes, which would be binding from 2020, while Labour will consult on what such standards should be. The Lib Dems would also reintroduce the zero-carbon standard, extending it to non-domestic buildings by 2022.

The full party manifestos can be downloaded from the following links:

Conservative Party:
https://www.conservatives.com/manifesto

Green Party of England and Wales:
https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/fi ... teepdf.pdf

Labour Party:
http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php/manifesto2017

Liberal Democrats:
http://www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto

Plaid Cymru:
http://www2.partyof.wales/actionplan17

Scottish National Party:
https://www.snp.org/manifesto

UK Independence Party:
http://www.ukip.org/manifesto2017

Northern Ireland

Democratic Unionist Party
http://www.mydup.com/publications/view/ ... -manifesto

Sinn Féin
https://www.sinnfein.ie/files/2017/MANI ... NGLISH.pdf

Social Democratic and Labour Party
http://www.sdlp.ie/issues/manifesto-2017/

Ulster Unionist Party
https://uup.org/our-vision/policies#201 ... -manifesto

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
https://www.allianceparty.org/document/ ... o#document

[ALEO Admin]

Links to Northern Ireland party manifestos have been added above (most of which were not yet available at the time of the original post).

Since the DUP are reported to be in talks with the Conservative party (see http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britai ... KKBN190220), below are some of the relevant references to energy policy in the party's manifesto:

AFFORDABLE ENERGY
Paying for oil, gas and electricity can consume a significant chunk of household budgets. A perception exists that electricity prices in Northern Ireland are high. Whilst prices are undoubtedly high for the largest industrial customers, our approximately 800,000 domestic customers pay just below the EU average for their electricity and considerably lower than their counterparts in the Republic of Ireland.
The DUP wants to see our energy companies place further downward pressure on household bills. We will support efforts to better control energy bills and will seek to ensure any such measure operates in Northern Ireland.

A SECURE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SUPPLY FOR NORTHERN IRELAND
Northern Ireland needs a secure and sustainable energy supply for both domestic and business customers. While concerns have been highlighted about the future security of supply of electricity in Northern Ireland, the DUP believes that this can be addressed by continued progress on interconnection, market integration and the development of new generation capacity. We are encouraged by recent planning applications for new power stations and see this as a sign that the market is responding positively and that the issues with security of supply can be addressed.
The DUP also believes that a comprehensive new Energy Strategy is needed to deal with security of supply as well as the future of renewable energy policy in Northern Ireland.
The DUP supports:
- A comprehensive new Energy Strategy for Northern Ireland;
- Continued progress on the Integrated Single Electricity Market
and the North South Interconnector;
- Improved interconnection with Great Britain; and
- The development of new generation capacity.

For more information on the DUP, including their record on climate change, see the BBC report at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40217141