Lib Dems slam Woolas over "remortgage your home to pay your bills" row

11.28.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 14th Sep 2008

Oldham West & Royton Lib Dems have slammed Labour MP and environment minister Phil Woolas for suggesting that families should remortgage their house in order to pay for energy efficiency measures.

Mark Alcock, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Oldham West & Royton, said, "This shows just how out of touch this local MP and this Labour government is. This comment shows that the government's fuel package is a flimsy and desperate offering which offers dangerously little for the short term and advocates plunging families into debt for the long term.

"The current economic climate is not the time to be borrowing against your home; the property market is in free-fall under Labour and it would be madness for anyone to borrow against the value of a rapidly declining asset, that is if you can get a loan.

"The government is clearly worryingly out of touch with the realities of life in Britain and Mr Woolas has totally lost touch with the situation for local people in Oldham West & Royton.

"Energy efficiency is obviously important, but what people need right now is help to heat their homes, before winter comes. It can get very cold around here when the nights draw in, and people shouldn't have to put their homes at risk to stay warm this winter."