Decision on solar tariffs could take weeks

Finance | Kirsty Weakley | 16 Jan 2012

High Court judges are deciding whether to grant the appeal made by the government against last December’s ruling that cuts to its solar subsidy scheme were illegal.

The case was brought before the Court of Appeal last Friday and a decision could take a few weeks. Friends of the Earth (FoE), who originally took the government to the High Court, is now appealing to the government to come up with a new plan.

FoE's policy and campaigns director Craig Bennett said: "By pushing through with this appeal ministers have prolonged the uncertainty hanging over the solar industry - now they must urgently come up with a plan B to safeguard the 30,000 jobs under threat.”

Earlier this month the Peabody Housing Association confirmed to civilsociety.co.uk that without a change in policy jobs would be lost due to the scaling back of its solar installations.

In a statement the Deprtment for Energy and Climate Change said: “Once the outcome is known we will consider our options and make an announcement on the way forward to provide clarity to consumers and industry.”

Directory: Friends of the Earth
Who's Who: Craig Bennett

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.