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Government to appeal High Court decision on solar payments 1

Finance | Kirsty Weakley | 5 Jan 2012

Friends of the Earth has criticised the government’s decision to appeal a High Court ruling which found that the cut to solar panel subsidies was illegal.

The department of energy and climate change yesterday lodged grounds of appeal with the Court of Appeal against December’s ruling that the government acted illegally. Environmental charity Friends of the Earth and two solar energy companies took the government to court after it slashed feed-in tariff payments for buildings generating energy through solar panels built after 12 December 2011 before the consultation on proposed new tariffs had been concluded.

In a statement yesterday the DECC said: “Our view is that the urgent steps we have proposed to protect the scheme for the future are fully consistent with the scheme’s statutory purpose.”

The consultation on proposals to reduce feed-in tariff payments was launched last October and closed on 23 December. The government received more than 3,000 responses and will not publish the analysis of the responses until after the appeal has been concluded. It is up to the Court of Appeal to decide if the government has grounds for an appeal and schedule a hearing.

Friends of the Earth head of campaigns, Andrew Pendleton said: “Trying to appeal the High Court’s ruling is and expensive waste of taxpayers’ money.”

The environmental campaigning charity has warned that premature cuts could cost up to 29,000 jobs and wants the government to reduce feed-in payments from February in line with falling installation costs.

Impact of the cut so far

Last year the Peabody housing association said that if the cut in feed in tariffs meant that it would have to scale back its planned solar panel programme for its residents resulting in job losses for employees and increased fuel bills for residents.

Speaking to civilsociety.co.uk a spokesman said that while there had been no job losses so far, “but if nothing changes then there will be job losses.”

At the end of December the National Trust, the Church of England, Forum for the Future and charitable consultants Carbon Leapfrog warned in a letter to the minister Greg Barker that the proposed changes threatened community solar schemes.

In the letter the National Trust said it has 57 potential solar sites in Yorkshire and the North Eats but is currently reassessing the viability of each as a result of the feed-in tariff reduction.

The Church of England said it has supported over 200 solar installations on church property and that local energy groups had been using feed-in tariffs to put money back into environmental projects.

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