Go for Green QE - not a banking black hole

The Bank of England has announced that it is to inject a further £75bn into the economy through quantitative easing. Responding to the decision, Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas said: 

While it's clear that quantitative easing is one of the only options left to get our ailing economy off its knees, the Bank of England's decision to usher in £75bn worth of unregulated QE is problematic.

Unless we impose constraints on private banks to ensure the money reaches the real economy, we're effectively throwing money into a banking black hole - a recipe for systemic economic failure and further social inequality.

What we need is properly regulated quantitative easing directed towards actually creating jobs, increasing lending to small businesses and facilitating the move towards a green economy.

A job creation strategy like the Green New Deal, for example, would ultimately pay for itself by generating incomes and boosting emerging green industries.

As the average annual energy bill reaches a shocking new high of around £1,000 per household, surely now is the time to consider a green quantitative easing programme to help fund energy efficiency solutions such as home insulation to help keep people's bills down, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.