Over the past month, we have been running a poll to find out whether you think the British government is doing enough to encourage energy saving measures in our homes. The results are in: 92.1% of you said NO while 7.9% YES. We’d say that’s a pretty conclusive result.

The poll result confirms what we suspected, simply that the government is doing insufficient to encourage energy saving measures in our homes, and moreover it is not being seen to be doing enough.

Sure, the government has recently announced that a nationwide Green Homes Service, offering advice on energy efficiency among other issues, will be launched on 1 April 2008 via the Energy Saving Trust. That’s a step in the right direction, but we believe real incentives need to be offered if we are to see a significant step change in energy saving in our homes.

We repeat our call for a removal of VAT on the installation of energy-efficient home improvements; reducing council tax for properties with a high energy-efficiency rating; and feed-in tariffs for micro-generation schemes, such as, electricity generated from photovoltaic cells that is sold back to the power companies.

We will be writing to the prime minister, Gordon Brown, as well as the minister for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, to tell them the result of our poll, and will continue to campaign for real and significant incentives to be introduced.

Thank you to everyone who cast their vote.