"You have a home with us," Pippa Heylings has said in an open letter to Green members who feel environmental issues have slipped down the party's agenda in recent month reports, Politics.co.uk.
Heylings, who is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on energy security and net zero as well as being MP for South Cambridgeshire, published her letter as COP31. the United Nations' annual climate change conference, got underway in Antalya, Turkey.
In it, says the website, Heylings (seen nearest the camera in the photo above) sets out five environmental commitments championed by the Lib Dems:
She cites the Sunshine Bill, which would require developers to fit new-builds with solar panels and heat pumps. The bill was brought forward by Max Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, in October 2024.
The government declined to support the bill at the time, but Wilkinson’s campaign was ultimately successful. In June 2025, the government announced it would incorporate the mandate for solar panels on the "vast majority" of new build homes into the upcoming Future Homes Standard. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, described the move as "just common sense".
On water, Heylings said the Liberal Democrats were fighting for a regulator with "real teeth" to replace Ofwat, with water companies run "for the public benefit rather than shareholders".
The letter also vows a £1 billion uplift to funding for nature-friendly farming schemes, with support for regenerative farming and a national "call to store" programme to help farms withstand drought and flood. Heylings added that the party would seek a cross-party national plan for heatwaves, drought and flooding.
This is an impressive environmental programme. Greens who despair of Polanskio-Corbynism would probably be more at home in the Lib Dems than the Labour Party. And they would be good for the Lib Dems too.
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