Close the damn doors on Oxford Street – I mean it

It would be good if all UK retailers adopted the French closed-door good practice

We contacted the government and official opposition parties to see if they would support such a regulation (AP)

Close the damn doors – there is a climate crisis for goodness sake!

Amid all the outcry over the disastrous Tory mini-Budget, the huge taxpayer energy subsidy for corporations and businesses was largely ignored.

One estimate of the giveaway was up to almost £50bn for the first six months. This is the equivalent of the entire state pension budget for that period ie, we could double the state pension with this free bung to businesses.

What was also not noticed, was that the more a corporation wastes energy, the more taxpayer subsidy they get.

Now, while there are businesses like family shops and pubs that desperately need the bailout, there are many hugely profitable corporations that do not. Take, for example, London’s Oxford Street retailers.

Their wide open doors pour out taxpayer-subsidised, expensively heated air out onto the street. It is the ultimate symbol of our climate genocidal consumerism.

Following the announcement of this energy support package by the destructive Truss administration, I carried out a survey of Oxford Street’s retailers to see how many left their doors open all day.

I found that a staggering 93 per cent of them did. Only two major retailers had energy efficient good practice in place, with doors that closed after customers entered or left.

They were Marks & Spencer’s and Selfridges. A handful of upmarket jewellers also kept their doors closed.

Every other major retailer had their doors wide open.

These included Zara, Body Shop, Microsoft, Disney, JD Sports, Dyson, Vodafone, McDonald’s, Lush, H&M, Lloyds Bank, Clarks Shoes, Next, Boss and Holland & Barrett.

So, I asked the retailers this question: “In the light of the climate emergency and the war-triggered energy shortage in the UK and Europe, how can you justify wasting taxpayer subsidised gas and electricity?”

The vast majority failed to reply, but three stores did. Boots said that all their other stores had doors closed as standard practice – and they were not in receipt of government subsidy, as 97 per cent of their electricity came from renewables.

Primark also said that all their other store doors, other than the Oxford Street one, were customer operated and not left open.

They added: “We have reissued a communication to all stores to remind them of our closed door policy.”

EE/BT stated that they were “setting up trials of different door opening policies”.

My survey was also prompted by the news that the French government has introduced a £695 fine for retailers if they left their doors open when the heating or air conditioning was on.

Their government said that leaving the doors open wasted 20 per cent of the energy used to heat and cool the stores. It would be good if all UK retailers adopted the French closed door good practice. But ideally to ensure a level playing field for all stores, it should be implemented by UK government regulation.

So, I contacted the government and official opposition parties to see if they would support such a regulation.

I asked the then business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg: “In light of the UK’s energy crisis and potential shortage of gas for winter electricity, due to the war and closure of the UK’s gas storage facility, would you support a ban on retailer open doors in the UK?”

A government spokesperson replied: “We remain committed to the target of net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050 and are transitioning to clean, affordable, homegrown energy to increase UK’s energy independence.”

My loose translation of this is: “Of course Rees-Mogg would never dream of introducing such a sensible regulation to reduce the billions in taxpayer subsidies that we are dishing out to the oil corporations. So, we will ignore your question and provide a blah-blah answer instead.”

Despite asking Ed Miliband’s Labour Party press team twice if they would support the regulation, they failed to reply. And rather pathetically, despite a very generous 10-day deadline, the Lib Dem spokesperson said, “I’m afraid we won’t be able to fulfil this in time for your deadline.”

My translation of the opposition parties’ failure to reply was that our entire political class is terrified of being lambasted for having so-called “nanny state” policies.

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I am not sure why every lily-livered UK politician faints in fear of this childish accusation from the right-wing press?

But in the light of this cowardice, I thought it would be empowering for our readers to run their own, “close your doors for Britain” campaign.

Why not ask or write politely to any local stores in your area, who have an open door practice, asking them to close their doors when the heating or air conditioning is on?

Do let us know the results in the comments below.