This letter was published in the Guardian this morning:
Memo to Lord Adonis in his new role as adviser on infrastructure projects: read Zoe Williams’ article on the use of quantitative easing for green and social investment (It’s fine to print money, so long as it’s not for the people, 5 October). As the dark, deflationary clouds from China and elsewhere gather, and as unemployment and underemployment are still to be found in great swaths of the country, Adonis could propose an infrastructure programme that can help deal with these threats. This would involve using QE to fund increased economic activity that protects the environment through a programme to make all the UK’s 30m homes, offices and factories energy efficient.
This decades-long energy infrastructure project would create new jobs in a vast range of skills in every part of the country. The work and business opportunities generated in every constituency will provide huge tax revenues and so calm even the most ardent deficit botherers. In short, it would be QE not just for the people, but also for the planet.
Colin Hines
Convenor, Green New Deal group