NHIC says Feed-in Tariffs reduction is a major Government embarrassment!

Today’s report on the reduction of solar panel Feed-in Tariffs by the Energy & Climate Change Committee chaired by Tim Yeo, MP, focuses on a major embarrassment for the Government?

Yeo says: “There is no question that solar subsidies need to be urgently reduced but the Government has handled this clumsily!

“Ministers should have spotted that the solar gold rush much earlier. That way subsidy levels could have been reduced in a more orderly way without delivering such a shock to the industry.”

Presumably the Department for Energy & Climate Control had a big hand in this unfortunate decision, which in several ways flies in the face of what it aimed to achieve through the Green Deal when it officially appears next autumn.

Joan Walley MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, pointed out: “It doesn’t make economic sense to let the sun go down on the solar industry in the UK. As well as helping to cut carbon emissions, every pv panels that is installed brings in VAT for the Government and every company that benefits from support is keeping people working.”

The National Home Improvement Council has been firmly of the opinion that reducing Feed-in Tariffs is a significant retrograde step that can only slow down the important move towards carbon emission reduction. It’s a major smack in the mouth for a ‘fledgling’ industry that was just beginning to find its wings and create new business and jobs before soaring upwards to the considerable benefit of the UK and our planet.

The NHIC welcomes comments and suggestions from the renewable industry, which it can take forward to the appropriate Government department.

Photo shows Tim Yeo, MP

More information: www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/ecc.cfm