Tory plan to cut energy efficiency rule for builders will cost new home owners £1,000 a year, says thinktank – as it happened

A researcher at a climate change think tank says the Conservative policy would be a ‘disaster for first time buyers’ Yesterday, as a gimmick, the Tories were handing out “Bottler Burnham” bottles of water (“0% strength”) to make a point about Burnham supposedly cancelling plans for an early election under pressure from the Tories. It is a version of a stunt they pulled in 2008 when they gave journalists bottles of a “Bottler Brown” beer. (Gordon Brown did pull plans for an early election at the last minute; this time the jibe is unfair, because there were no Burnham plans for an early election. ) The new bottles feature the image of Burnham produced by the Manchester artist Stan Chow. The SNP’s effective ban on new nuclear energy in Scotland flies in the face of common-sense. No part of Great Britain should be missing out on plans for new nuclear