Huhne promises Green Deal Bill this autumn

Lib Dem Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne today promised a ‘Green Deal’ Bill this autumn which he said would be a bigger attempt to dramatically improve the energy saving capability of houses that have already been built anywhere in the world.

“Everything up until now has been incremental. It will make sure that every home is lagged, insulated and draught proofed to within an inch of its life to be consistent with our climate change targets - an 80% reduction in our carbon emissions. If we don’t get our homes right we can kiss goodbye to our carbon emissions targets,” said Chris.

The work will extend to public buildings too and Huhne joked about a naming and shaming session within the Cabinet with the best department winning a prize and the worst awarded a wooden spoon. He couldn’t say whether the results of this would be made public but indicated that he hoped they would be.

On nuclear power, an issue which divided the parties during the general election, Huhne said that it was his belief that there would be new nuclear. “We recognised that we couldn’t go to the wire on this because there is an overwhelming majority in favour of nuclear power in the House of Commons.” But, he said, the Lib Dems had won a concession so that our MPs will abstain when the matter comes before the House of Commons. “A deal is a deal and my job is to deliver on the deal exactly as I would expect George Osborne to deliver on our commitment of raising tax thresholds.”

However, he acknowledged that he himself faces a difficult decision as to how he will vote. “The coalition agreement implies that I will abstain on this, but I’ll have to discuss that with Alistair (Carmichael) and Nick (Clegg),” he conceded. “It does look a bit odd if I’m actually facilitating all of these new energy sources and then abstaining in the House of Commons.”

Chris Huhne also announced that he would be backing former Richmond Park MP Susan Kramer to be Party President:

“I think it’s better to have someone who is not an MP. Whilst it’s not deliberate that Susan is not an MP, I think it’s better to have someone who isn’t.”

The secret diary of an election photographer - Day 3

A truly hectic day. We managed over 1100 miles by plane and by road (thanks to Paul Harrison of Sky News for that stat). All the miles are being carbon offset, by the way.

A 4.30am start for me to meet the battlebus for a very early trip to Glasgow where Nick Clegg unveiled a poster highlighting the Conservatives policies which will lead to a 3% annual rise in VAT. That equates to about £389 for the average family. As an additional means of highlighting this danger, the Lib Dems adapted a famous Tory billboard from 1992 and used the 'Tory VAT Bombshell' tagline.

With Nick on this trip was former leader Charles Kennedy who was shared some of his memories of the last election campaign. Charles is always good value and was in fine fettle today.

After Glasgow, we headed to Eastleigh to meet up with Chris Huhne. I understand that in preparations for the leaders' debates starting next week, Chris has been role playing Gordon Brown.

We went to a factory which makes high quality cabling. There Nick gave a stump speech to the workforce before it was off again.

The plane this time took us the short hop to Bristol where we met Stephen Williams MP and Paul Harrod. They took us to the @Bristol science museum. It's not a museum in the sense that I know them! I is full of brilliant interactive exhibits aimed at young people.

Nick watched as some visitors created an animation - using some of the technologies pioneered by one of Bristol's most famous sons - Nick Park of Wallace and Grommit fame. He also watched as another exibit froze water in front of our eyes.

Then it was outside for another stump speech in the sunshine before we caught the train home.

Phew!

Tomorrow is another early start and full day.

A video of Nick and Chris speaking about the differences between Tory and Lib Dem tax policies is below: