retrofitting housing… questioning airport expansion… championing sustainable fishing
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Here are a couple of ‘highlights’ from what the New Economics Forum have put together – which follow on from issues we’ve followed here in the Sid Valley:
We are excited to share NEF’s Review of the Year – an overview of everything we’ve been working on in this challenging year.
Great Homes Upgrade: Bringing home the Green New Deal
This autumn, we launched a major public campaign to get the government to commit to retrofitting the UK’s housing: the Great Homes Upgrade. We launched the campaign with a coalition of businesses, trade unions, green NGOs, and politically diverse mayors and local authorities. We won an early victory at the Labour Party conference when Keir Starmer adopted our headline policy, referencing our figures in his speech.
Making flying fair
NEF has responded to calls for help from community groups fighting their local airport expansions. We provided expert economic challenge to previously undisputed assumptions in planning applications. Our economist Alex Chapman’s intense cross-examination at the Bristol Airport appeal formed part of probably the strongest challenge to the economics of airport expansion. Our Frequent Flyer Levy is increasingly cited as a route to reduce air travel.
A future for the fishers of Eastbourne
For the past eight years, NEF has helped Eastbourne’s sustainable fishers with economic research, analysis and community development planning. Having survived the lockdowns when their market all but disappeared, the quay finally opened in August. With the smoker and shop now open, they are at last able to sell directly to the public – more than 30 years after they embarked on the project.