This is the latest Green New Deal letter in the Guardian:
Central banks printing more money through quantitative easing do not risk hyper-inflation. The US, UK, Japan and recently the EU have printed or plan to print about a staggering £5tn of QE money and yet deflation, not inflation, is still a major economic threat. To encourage activity across the whole economy the UK government should set an example and again have the Bank of England print tens of billions, but this time to pay for a carefully timed and costed, hence non-inflationary, infrastructure programme.
There have already been calls for such an alternative from environmental groups and green business (Letters, 29 November 2014). They detailed how green infrastructure QE could generate jobs in every corner of the UK by building the new low-carbon homes required and by making all the country’s existing 30m properties energy efficient. Such an approach would have the additional advantage of freeing up some Treasury funds to be redirected to the country’s hard-pressed social infrastructure.
Colin Hines
Convener, Green New Deal group