Environmental campaigners handed a petition with 1,650 signatures to two MPs calling for home insulation to be made government policy to help families out of winter fuel poverty.

Friends of the Earth’s Haringey groups handed the petition to Hornsey and Wood Green MP Catherine West and to Tottenham MP David Lammy, calling for a shift away from fossil fuels to tackle global warming and help reduce household heating bills.

The petition demands “urgent support” to help families facing sky-high energy bills by setting up a national programme to insulate all housing and adopt a national energy system powered by green renewables.

The campaigners got immediate backing from both MPs.

“Large scale insulation came to a halt in 2010,” Catherine West pointed out. “But we are committed to £28 billion a year to insulate homes and shift to low-carbon heating and electricity generation.”

Fellow Labour MP David Lammy pointed out that thousands of his Tottenham constituents live in poorly-insulated homes and “suffer high bills and poor health as a result”.

He added: “It’s a scandal that we have so many uninsulated homes.”

More than 9,000 homes in Tottenham lack loft insulation and 4,000 don’t have cavity wall insulation, campaigners pointed out, while another 8,900 homes in Hornsey and Wood Green lack loft insulation and 3,800 are without cavity insulation.

The petition follows a campaign for the roll-out of street-by-street home insulation to slash energy bills and reduce global-warming emissions.

It calls on the government to “unlock the potential of clean homegrown renewable power” that would give Britain energy security, end reliance on costly gas imports and cut the UK’s emissions.  

They displayed a “Haringey 4 Warm Homes” quilt showing the 13 local organisations that are backing their campaign, including Haringey Unison trade union, Muswell Hill Methodist Church, London Islamic Cultural Society in Hornsey, the Haringey Play Association, Haringey Federation of Residents Associations, Bounds Green food bank, The Engine Room church community centre at Tottenham Hale, Haringey Welcome volunteers for migrants and refugees, Muswell Hill Unitarian Church and Living Under One Sun community allotments in Tottenham Hale, as well as elected Haringey Council members.