Having had a letter in the Guardian today with me, Colin Hines also has one on a fairly similar theme in the FT:

Letter: Green infrastructure could pave a way out of crisis

It was encouraging to read that nearly two-thirds of Britons polled want stronger action to tackle the climate crisis and that half of these want action now on both this and the pandemic (The FT View, August 22).

There is a way the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, could link the two and in the process prevent himself crashing from hero to zero in the court of public opinion. To see off the widely predicted surge in unemployment, he must halt the winding down of the furlough scheme and shift his understandable short-term concerns about the continued decline in tourism, hospitality and retailing, by also broadening his focus to encompass detailed plans for transferring people into new jobs.

This should involve the employment of the millions of increased staff needed across all social sectors, ranging from more care and health workers, to teachers and police. Also crucial are massive investments in providing new climate-friendly infrastructure projects, such as making all the UK's 30m buildings carbon neutral and adapting existing infrastructure to deal with future heatwaves and flooding.

This approach would have the twin advantage of plugging the holes in the UK's social fabric made clear by the effects of coronavirus, and beginning to seriously tackle the climate emergency, while providing much-needed jobs in every constituency.

Colin Hines Convener, UK Green New Deal Group, London TW1, UK