In this paper last week, cllr George Redmond condemned the obscene profits of the oil giants.

This unchecked profiteering is plainly unacceptable and the definition of exploitation. The energy price cap continues to rise, and the Bank of England is forecasting some of the worst inflation we have seen in decades.

Serious politicians, like the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, are calling for emergency action and serious intervention to get people through this crisis.

Meanwhile, the Tory contenders for Prime Minister are clearly not serious about this crisis. They are either engaged in a war of words on “tax cuts, not handouts” or appealing to the Tory elite in Tunbridge Wells.

The entire contest is detached from the reality faced by millions of people in this country.

Regardless of the result of that contest, the winners will be companies like BP and Shell and others who in hiking up prices, at this time, are behaving in a selfish and reckless way to maximise short-term profits with little thought for the consequences.

Last week, at the council’s city administration committee, there was a report on the Affordable Housing Supply Programme. This is a regular paper, detailing how the council spends grant awards from the Scottish Government to support new homes for rent in the social sector.

The paper opened by laying bare the challenge faced by the construction sector. Costs are up, supply chains are still under pressure and projects are slipping.

Slowing the supply of new, affordable homes will only serve to drive the cost of housing even higher. The cost -of-living crisis is a vicious circle.

And this comes at a time we need new social housing and homes that are energy self-sufficient more than ever before. The energy crisis and the cost-of-living crisis shows us that we need to take measures to reduce our demand for energy, as well as changing the sources of that energy.

While we are still dependent on oil and gas to heat or power our homes, the risk is that we will be forced to rely on a small number of profiteers who will do as they please. The climate emergency means that we can’t go on like this.

This crisis should embolden us. We are facing the biggest cut to living standards in 60 years. It is time for a Green New Deal. One that empowers our communities - by supporting new distributed generation initiatives i.e. local renewable forms of heat and energy generation.

Glasgow Labour delivered a district heating system when we built the Athletes’ Village in Dalmarnock.

We secured a similar project in the city centre. We need bold thinking and commitment on the part of central Government to allow us to pursue as many of these projects as possible.

And nowhere is that more urgent than Glasgow’s tenement stock. Glasgow’s tenements are stunning. But they’re hard to heat or keep warm.

We know that they are in disrepair. We know these challenges, and yet there is no action from the Government in Edinburgh to seriously deal with them at the scale needed. 

A genuine Green New Deal across Scotland is needed, to build our own energy resilience, reduce our demand on fossil fuels and stop the reckless profiteering on the back of those most in need.