Corbyn pledges energy-efficient housing

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has hinted at a possible green battleground in the country's upcoming general election by announcing plans to introduce new carbon emissions regulations for all houses built in the country.

On Dec 12, the country faces its third general election in five years. Last week the Conservative government announced a halt to shale-gas extraction, known as fracking. The move indicates that the political parties could fight the election on more wide-ranging topics, and not just the all-encompassing issue of Brexit.

In 2006, when serving as chancellor in Tony Blair's government, Gordon Brown announced measures for new houses to produce zero carbon emissions by 2016. Following the 2015 election, when Conservative leader David Cameron replaced Brown as prime minister, those plans were dropped.

That decision drew a furious reaction, with the Chief Executive of UK Green Building Council Julie Hirigoyen calling it "shortsighted, unnecessary, retrograde and damaging to the house-building industry". Edward Davey, who had served as secretary of state for energy and climate change in Cameron's first-term coalition government and is now deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said "Cameron may as well hug a coal power station".

Labour leaders hope their latest proposals could reduce domestic energy bills by as much as 200 pounds ($258) per year, although they have not yet gone into specific detail on how this would be achieved.

"Homes should be safe and warm for families and not damage the environment for future generations, but our housing currently contributes a massive 14 percent of the United Kingdom's greenhouse gas emissions," said Corbyn.

"We will tackle the housing and climate crises at the same time by building warm and energy-efficient homes," he said.

In addition to this plan's green impact, the party contends an additional nationwide energy-efficient home improvement policy would create 450,000 jobs, with almost all homes entitled to funding either through grants or interest-free loans. These would be repaid through reduced energy bills.

The announcement came as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government revealed its own plans to review his predecessor Theresa May's pledge to get the country down to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.