Insulate Britain ringleader's London flat has terrible eco-credentials

EXCLUSIVE: Insulate Britain ringleader’s £360,000 London flat has terrible eco-credentials with no roof or cavity wall insulation and poor heating control

• EXCLUSIVE: Liam Norton fled GMB over flat’s reported poor energy efficiency
• He claimed he could not afford to insulate the property and stormed off the show
• Now MailOnline can reveal how his home pumps out four tonnes of CO2 a year
• The flat also has an energy rating of E, its Energy Performance Certificate shows

An Insulate Britain ringleader who stormed off national TV after he was criticised by Susannah Reid for failing to practice what he preaches lives in a flat with astonishingly poor eco-credentials, the MailOnline can reveal.

Liam Norton, 36, who orchestrated the recent protests that have brought the country’s motorways to a standstill, ripped off his microphone and fled the Good Morning Britain studio when the presenter challenged him about reported poor energy efficiency at his own property.

Norton, an electrician who likens himself to Winston Churchill, claimed he could not afford to insulate the property and stormed out of the GMB studio when further challenged.

Today we can reveal the full details of how the environmentalist is generating more carbon emissions than most of his neighbours: his home has ‘no roof insulation’; ‘no cavity wall insulation’; ‘poor heating control’ and ‘very poor lighting’.

The two-bedroom, first-floor flat in Streatham, south London, has an energy rating of E – the lowest category permitted for rental properties.

The home, which measures just 46 square metres, pumps out four tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, its Energy Performance Certificate [EPC] reveals.

Insulate Britain ringleader Liam Norton (pictured above), 36, who stormed off national TV after he was criticised by Susannah Reid for failing to practice what he preaches, lives in a flat with astonishingly poor eco-credentials, the MailOnline can reveal

The two-bedroom, first-floor flat in Streatham, south London, pumps out four tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, its Energy Performance Certificate [EPC] reveals

The EPC states that while the windows of the property are double glazed, the roof is not insulated, there is no cavity wall insulation and the flat has poor heating controls.

The report adds that the gas-heated flat, which is worth £360,000 and owned by Norton’s partner Sally Davidson, could easily become more energy efficient.

It recommends that by installing low energy lighting and a condensing boiler the flat’s energy costs would be slashed by ten per cent and gain a category D rating.

Ms Davidson, an Extinction Rebellion protester who was convicted earlier this year of obstruction, declined to discuss the poor energy efficiency of the flat she shares with Insulate Britain leader Norton with MailOnline this morning.

She told a reporter: ‘I don’t appreciate you coming to my flat. Now please leave my property.’

However, last week Norton told TV presenter Susannah Reid the lack of insulation at his own home was not relevant when she challenged him during a live interview on Good Morning Britain.

He said: ‘Whether or not my home is insulated doesn’t change the fact that millions of homes are not insulated.’

Asked why he had not insulated his home, he replied: ‘You know insulation costs thousands, tens of thousands [of pounds].’

Norton, who has not taken part in any of the sit-down protests, later clashed with Reid’s co-presenter Richard Madeley when he compared the actions of Insulate Britain to Churchill’s stance against Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, before storming out of the studio.

Mr Norton is pictured being arrested after a slip road from the M25 at Junction 14, close to London’s Heathrow Airport, was blocked by Insulate Britain on September 27

The eco protestors seen targeting Old Street roundabout by sitting down and holding up banners in London today during their latest disruptive rush-hour protest

The report adds that the flat, which is worth £360,000 and owned by Norton’s partner Sally Davidson (pictured far right, with Norton far left), could easily become more energy efficient

The modest flat, which has two bedrooms and a garage, has been used as a headquarters to plot some of the eco group’s hugely disruptive demonstrations that have paralysed roads around London.

A whistle-blower said: ‘Liam [Norton] is happy for volunteers, including some really old people, to go to jail or be fined. But he doesn’t put himself at risk.

‘He invites you to the flat in south London where he organizes and explains what you are going to do but won’t do himself.

‘He lives there with his partner and just stays out of harm’s way.

‘The whole thing was never about insulating homes, it’s all about him. Liam is the ring leader. He is the problem.’

A neighbour added: ‘Liam [Norton] lives there with his partner Sally.

Last week Norton told TV presenter Susannah Reid the lack of insulation at his own home was not relevant when she challenged him during a live interview on Good Morning Britain

He ripped off his microphone and fled the GMB studio when the presenter further challenged him about reported poor energy efficiency at his own property

‘They have a small car, a Volkswagen Polo. It’s pretty old and certainly not electric. They don’t drive it very often.’

A 2004 blue VW Polo with a 1.2 litre petrol engine is parked in the road outside the Streatham flat.

It was revealed last month how Norton’s biggest supporter is his mother, 62-year-old Theresa Norton, who has joined him for the mayhem on the M25.

Ms Norton, a Labour councillor in Scarborough, north Yorkshire, told neighbours she was going on a two-week holiday before heading south to bring the country’s busiest motorway to a standstill where she was arrested four times in a week.

But like her son Ms Norton who lives in a flat without the best insulation. Her home in an Edwardian seafront terrace is understood to be protected for conservation reasons so all windows are single glazed.

Most of the properties in her street, Esplanade Gardens, have an Energy Performance Certificate rating in Band D, an average rating which ‘leaves room for improvement’, according to experts.

Source: Read Full Article