General Election 2024
Richard George McLane
The Green Party
Thirsk and Malton
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Thirsk Friends of the Earth and Ryedale Environment Group interviewed all the candidates in Thirsk and Malton except Reform candidate Mark Robinson, who did not reply to our email. Click the photo below to watch our interview with Green Party candidate Richard McLane. Recorded in Helmsley on 24 June.
Candidate Statement on Climate, Energy, Nature and the Environment
The Green Party is clear that the failed experiment of privatising water has been an unmitigated disaster. It was reported that untreated sewage was discharged into English waterways for more than 3.6 million hours in 2023 and as a result. This is the direct result of ‘mismanagement and underinvestment’ and water companies have incurred debts of £64billion, while paying out £74biillion in dividends. Caroline Lucas launched a petition in May to bring water back in to public ownership. Not only will public ownership enable the restoration of habitats and biodiversity, it will also bring an end to private shareholders creaming off the profits paid by everyone who drinks water from their taps. Our manifesto calls for £12m to be invested in water and sewage infrastructure.
Food production and security are in jeopardy with 7000 farms having dissolved since 2019 and this year, we have witnessed the worst crop loss due to severe climate conditions in history. To resolve these issues, we must provide financial support to farmers who have been affected and to provide subsidies to fund measures which improve resilience to weather related threats. We will push to restore rivers and take a ‘nature-based solutions’ approach to the prevention of flooding and storm overflows and we propose a fully funded £1.5bn increase in the Department For Rural Affairs budget to support this and other nature recovery work.
It is a scandal that millions of people in the UK cannot afford to heat their homes or cook a meal. This is because of political choices, successive government failures to invest in reliable renewable energy or to upgrade our homes so that they’re comfortable and warm. We are committed to the retrofitting of our homes; installing insulation and non-fossil fuel heating systems and adapting homes for a climate changed world. We have fully funded proposals to invest £50bn over 5 years in this area. Elected Greens will also push for a Clean Air Act, which will set new air quality standards for the UK. We would enshrine the right to breathe clean air in the law.
Subsidies were increased last year by 475% to fund the fossil fuel industry with public money, despite this approach being forecast to cost the economy twice as much as it would to make the transition to zero carbon energy – not to mention the adverse environmental impact it is having. The current approach to implementing a solar strategy isn’t working and so the Green Party will introduce new support for solar and other renewable energies, including marine, hydro-power and geothermal, to provide much of the remainder of the UK’s energy supply by 2030. We will also proactively support the solar rooftop revolution by mandating the use of solar panels on all new homes and commercial buildings, where possible and appropriate. Productive agricultural land should not be jeopardised by generating renewable energy, however clear legislation must be passed and the required infrastructure developed to reduce / remove our reliance on fossil fuels and create increased opportunities for viable brown-field sites and remove the existing threat to food production.
Businesses and homes willing to invest in solar installations must be rewarded and incentivised. I personally funded a £140,000 solar panel system on the rooftops of my business premises in Helmsley with no government support and was subsequently penalised through increased business rates, while energy suppliers marked up the prices of the electricity we created by 700%.
As the world economy is forecast to treble by 2050 the task of building firm foundations for generating carbon-green energy will become almost impossible if it is left any longer. A £10million saving can be made per year on energy bills, helping tackle the cost of living crisis by implementing the following initiatives:
Lift the ban on onshore wind
Reinstate the zero carbon standard for new homes
Cop the prices of North Sea gas
Break the link between gas prices and electricity
Launch a national programme for Energy Independent homes
Transition subsidies away from fossil fuels
To protect and restore nature, Elected Greens will campaign to:
Introduce a new Rights of Nature Act, giving rights to nature itself.
End the scandal of sewage pouring into our rivers and seas by taking the water companies back into public ownership.
Extend people’s access to green space and waterways close to where they live with a new English Right to Roam Act.
Set aside 30% of our land and seas by 2030 in which nature will receive the highest priority and protection.
Green MPs will also press for:
An immediate end to the emergency authorisation of bee-killing pesticides.
A new Clean Air (Human Rights) Act, giving everyone the right to breathe clean air.
Greens will also push for a Clean Air Act, which will set new air quality standards for the UK. We would enshrine the right to breathe clean air in the law.
This is an example of work I have done to restore nature in our area