Government urged to rise to green investment challenge

A new report released today reveals the scale of the green investment challenge facing the UK.

The Green Investment Gap report, released by environmental think tank Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC), finds that the UK devoted just £12.6bn towards green investment in 2009-10.This figure amounts to less than 1% of UK GDP; less than what Britain spends on furniture annually; and less than half the annual green investment needed over the next decade to build the green economy.

“These figures reveal, for the first time, the size of the green investment challenge facing the UK,” said PIRC’s Director, Guy Shrubsole. “But they also show the size of the opportunity awaiting the country. At a time when the future of our national energy system is being reconsidered, in the wake of record oil prices and the Japanese nuclear accident, we would be foolish not to invest more in clean energy options.

“We don’t invest enough currently, but if we are serious about creating green jobs, insulating the country against oil shocks, and tackling climate change, we need to invest more. Green investment should be central to the government’s strategy for a sustainable economic recovery. To ensure that happens, the Chancellor needs to announce a strong Green Investment Bank
in tomorrow’s Budget.”

The report recommends that government, industry and the third sector work

together to:

• produce an annual audit of green investment;

• commit to closing the green investment gap facing the UK;

• legislate for a strong, public Green Investment Bank with the ability to

borrow and lend.

Investing sufficiently to meet our 2020 targets for emissions reduction, renewable energy and energy efficiency would result in:

• Greenhouse gas emissions declining by 34% on 1990 levels.

• The creation of hundreds of thousands of new green jobs. The Department of Energy and Climate Change estimate 250,000 green jobs will be created in energy efficiency industries over the next 20 years, whilst the Offshore Valuation Group estimates  the potential for 145,000 jobs in the offshore wind industry over the next four decades.

• Insulation against oil and gas price shocks. The government estimates that a doubling of the oil price (from $90/bl to $180/bl) would result in a cumulative loss of GDP of £45bn over 2 years.

The Green Investment Gap also shows that:

• Public sector green investment was £6.7bn in 2009-10, whilst private sector green investment was £5.9bn.

• Green spending by the private sector, third sector and households all show positive trends in recent decades, but the public sector is making up for lost investment following privatisation of the energy utilities in the 1980s and 1990s.

• Other investment decisions show up the small scale of UK green investment. For example, the UK spends £35.3bn on defence, and is likely to spend £100bn on decommissioning old nuclear power stations and oil and gas infrastructure.

• The UK lags behind other countries in green investment: South  Korea, for instance, is devoting 2% of its GDP to financing clean technologies.

Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC) is an environmental think tank, dedicated to producing research and advocacy on climate change, energy and sustainability issues.

The full report is available HERE

Barry Gardiner Questions UK Libya Involvement

Brent North MP, Barry Gardiner, had the following exchange with the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on Friday:

Barry Gardiner (Brent North, Labour)

I welcome the UN resolution, but I oppose Britain's military involvement in implementing it. The UN resolution is not to secure a no-fly zone for humanitarian protection, but an extraordinary authorisation of regime change. Unless the Prime Minister believes that Libya's Arab and African neighbours lack the capacity or the compassion for their Libyan brothers and sisters to act independently, why does he insist on putting British military personnel at risk?

David Cameron (Prime Minister; Witney, Conservative)

Obviously I respect the hon. Gentleman's view, but it seems to me that if we will the end, we should also will the means to that end. We should never overestimate Britain's size or capabilities, but neither should we underestimate them. We have one of the finest armed services in the world. We are one of the world's leading military powers, and we also have huge strength in diplomacy, soft power and development. We should not play a disproportionate part, but I think that we should play a proportionate part alongside allies such as France, America and the Arab world. To say that we should pass such a resolution but then just stand back and hope that someone, somewhere in the Arab world will bring it about is profoundly wrong.

Jenny Jones to be Green Candidate for London Mayor

Three-term London Assembly Member Jenny Jones has been selected as the Green Party’s candidate for Mayor of London.

In a ballot of London party members, Jones received 458, or 66%, of the 1st preference votes.
Shahrar Ali, parliamentary candidate for Brent Central last year, took 133 1st preference votes (19%), and Farid Bakht, who ran in Bethnal Green & Bow, was the first choice of 90 members (13%).

Six members voted to re-open nominations, and two papers were spoiled, out of a total of 689 ballots received.

All three candidates are also seeking nomination as London-wide members of the Assembly

Cavalcade Cascades Leaflets for March 26th

Brent Fightback supporters gave out between 1,000 and 2,000 leaflets today in a four hour cavalcade of cycles and cars, led by a decorated lorry through the streets of Brent accompanied by boucing balloons, cheerful car horns and a tireless PA system publicing next week's TUC March for the Alternative.  Stops were made at Harlesden Jubilee Clock, Wembley Central Square, Wembley Park ASDA, Neasden Shopping Centre, Cricklewood Broadway and Kilburn High Road.

It is always hard to leaflet busy shoppers, but those who stopped to talk were very concerned about the cuts and some spoke about already being hard up and how they would be hit really hard. They were pleased that there was a campaign and a march even if they themselves couldn't make it next week. However it was heartening to hear how many were already intending to come.

Details for March for the Alternative Next Saturday

View March for the Alternative Route in a larger map

Here are some details for the March for the Alternative next Saturday from the dedicated WEBSITE:

The March:

The march will gather on Victoria Embankment and form up between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges from 11am.

It will start moving off around noon, but because of the likely size the last marchers will not be leaving until after two, and possibly later.

People coming under their own steam from London and the South-East may therefore not want to arrive for the start as it would be better for people with long return journeys and trains to catch to be at the front of the march.

The rally:

We estimate that the march will arrive in Hyde Park shortly after 1:15pm. We will therefore start the rally around 1:30.

Because we expect large numbers we estimate that people will still be arriving in the Park at 4pm – and possibly later. We will therefore keep the rally running until around 4:30pm. Of course, not everyone who arrives early will want to stay through to the end – and indeed we hope that early arrivals will move to allow those coming later a good view.

In the Park:

In addition to the stage and giant screens in the park, there will be refreshment facilities and extra toilets. (There are good public toilets in Trafalgar Square along the route too.)

Travelling from Brent:

A reminder that if you want to go to the demo with other Brent Fightback supporters, we will be meeting on the Southbound platforms of Kilburn Jubilee line and Kilburn Park  Bakerloo line stations. Look for the Brent Fightback or Brent Trades Council banners - one will be on each station. Meet at 9.30am.

Playful Protest on March 26th

 

"Join us in playful protest on 26 March as part of the national March for the Alternative, taking place in response to the government's programme of fast and deep public spending cuts."

Play England and Unite's Community and Youth Workers section are proposing this under the banner of the Play England led campaign, Save Children's Play. Thousands of children and young people will be affected by cuts to play services, so join your fellow play people on 26 March and stand up for play!

The main march will gather on Victoria Embankment and form up between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges from 11am. We'll be coordinating a meeting point close by where we can all gather and head down together.

We're looking to create a carnival atmosphere to demonstrate the positive impact of play. Come playfully armed, with space hoppers, hula hoops, skipping ropes, juggling balls, musical instruments, stilts, you name it!

You can pledge your attendance here: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118080668268454. Don't forget to put the date in your diary and forward the link to all your friends and colleagues in play. You can share your playful ideas for the delegation and keep informed about the plans via the Save Children's Play Facebook page. Visit www.facebook.com/savechildrensplay, and don't forget to 'Like' us! If you're not on Facebook , email us at savechildrensplay@ncb.org.uk to receive updates about the march and register an interest.

Let's make some noise for play!

Unite has also launched a survey to gauge the effects of cuts to play services. The survey can be accessed at www.surveymonkey.com/s/BYJSPW7 and runs until April.

Crest Academy Boss wants to run 250 more schools

Sir Bruce Liddington, head of E-Act has told the Times Educational Supplement that he wants to run 250 more schools. He says he expect to have around 50 free schools, 50 'traditional' academies that replace under-performing schools, 100 'converter academies' (the Claremont type) and 50 primary schools over the next 5 years.

E-Act runs the two Crest academies where 21 teachers are being made redundant. E-Act used to be known as Edutrust but changed their name after the then head, Lord Bhattia, resigned after accusations of financial mismanagement. Sir Bruce Liddington is paid £265,000 annually and E-Act made a £2.4 million profit in 2009.

Primary schools around the Crest Academies better look out because Liddington said, "We are also interested in chains of primaries. As funding becomes tighter you will find that small primary schools will need to get together if they are going to survive. We are also starting to talk about chains of primaries in inner-urban areas around our existing traditional academies."

Alasdair Smith, Anti-Academies Alliance national secretary said:

Today’s revelations in the TES confirm the point consistently made by the AAA; academy conversions and free schools are about privatisation. 
 
It is about the corporate takeover of education. Politicians may claim it is about ‘raising standards’, ‘closing the attainment gap’ or giving school leaders ‘more freedom’, but the harsh reality is that big business wants our schools. 
 
EACT is not alone. Before the election, VT Education claimed it wanted 1000 schools. CfBT are looking at models to control whole areas such as Lincolnshire and ARK and the Harris Federation are busily expanding. All these chains claim to be ‘charitable’. But they are big businesses with fat cat bosses

Scandalously it appears that the DfE is now diverting significant resources to this end. The Coalition is aiding and abetting the privatisation of our state education system. There is also a clamour in ‘edu-business’ circles to allow ‘for profit’ providers to enter free schools market. The direction of travel is for wholesale privatisation of state education. 

 
Every academy conversion and every new free school will hasten this process. We urge governors and head teachers to resist the inducements to convert. We urge parents and staff to organise and protest. 
 There has never been a better reason to join the TUC’s protest on the 26^th March.

More from Anti Academies Alliance

Harrow Education Unions Challenge Academy Conversion

As education unions in Brent consider taking action over Claremont High School's conversion to academy status, their counter-parts in Harrow have issued a statement about proposals for seven of the borough's high schools to become academies. In contrast to Brent Council, Harrow Council has clearly stated its opposition to their schools becoming academies.

This is the statement by the NUT, ATL, NASUWT, GMB and Unison:

Our hard working members in teaching and support roles across Harrow face an unprecedented period of change as seven of Harrow’s secondary schools decide whether or not to break away from the local authority and become answerable to government as independent academy schools. Academy conversion brings with it serious repercussions for our membership who face potential job loss and alterations to their terms and conditions. Yet all we are hearing from school management teams in this consultation is half hearted ‘intentions’ to retain existing national and local terms and conditions with no commitment to formal agreements. 

We will take full part in these important consultations and will use all available means to act in our members'  best interests but we are vigorously opposed to academy conversion and we support Harrow Council’s preference that all schools should remain within the local school family. Our members do not want to become academy employees, do not support the academy programme and are passionately opposed to it.

If the seven school governing bodies do decide to convert to academies, they will be independent from the local authority breaking a rich tradition of community based, locally accountable and publicly-managed schools. For many years our comprehensive schools have been nationally recognised for achievements in educational excellence which have benefited many generations of Harrovians. We do not have a tradition of failing schools which the original style of academies were mainly focused on.

The expansion of academies are no more than a Coalition Government experiment which is intent on breaking up state comprehensive education by introducing competition and demanding that schools compete for money, students and staff as businesses against one another. It is proven that market capitalism has no place in education and these changes are driven by an ideological disdain for all thing’s public. The Coalition Government should not be allowed to play party politics with our children’s future.

It is also claimed by Government that academies will improve standards but independent research and evaluation provides no evidence that academies are better than other schools in raising educational performance. We struggle to see how academy conversion will help schools in Harrow who are already judged to be outstanding and given the unknown and risky implications of conversion, this could have serious implications for our young people’s life chances.

It is also unclear how any of the freedoms which the Government claims academies will bring can improve schools. Harrow schools already work with the biggest devolved school budget than any other local authority in the country and with a significant degree of discretion and freedom to act in collaboration with other schools and Harrow Council.

To suggest, as Bob Blackman MP has done (Conservative Harrow East), that schools should be ‘freed from the dead hand of Harrow Council’ is fundamentally wrong, unhelpful and is fuelled by political prejudice. He does not recognise that academies will be under a far greater degree of central control and scrutiny, in terms of budgets, school performance and governing body appointees than at present and will be directly answerable to the Secretary of State and his regulator, the Young People’s Learning Agency. Free from bureaucratic interference this is not.

"Harrow schools play a major part of community life which means the academy consultation is of paramount importance to the residents of Harrow. The decision by school governing bodies will not only affect the seven schools in consultation but we believe will have a negative impact upon all schools in the borough and will have far reaching implications on the level of educational provision across the area.

Conversion will impact the life chances of future generations of Harrow’s young people and will involve a huge transfer of public assets (e.g. school buildings & land) to the private sector. Any decision should not be taken lightly or without hearing all views from the local community.
"A ‘big question’ like this requires ‘big society’ input, consultation and civic engagement from the wider community. We encourage pupils, parents, staff, our members, Harrow Councillors and interested residents to take part in the school consultation meetings which are taking place on Monday 21st March 2011 at the seven affected schools (more information is available from school websites).

 To hear more of a presentation of the real facts concerning academies we urge people to attend an Anti Academies Alliance parents/public meeting on Friday 25 March at 7pm (Council Chambers, Harrow Civic Centre, Station Road, HA1 2UU).