The Court of Appeal has rejected the government’s attempts to overturn a High Court ruling that said the cut to solar tariff payments was illegal.

As a result of the cut in funding, planned solar projects have been put on hold or scaled back, including those at the National Trust, the Church of England and the Peabody housing association. 

Friends of the Earth and two solar companies took the Department of Energy and Climate Change to court last year after the government cut feed-in-tariff payments for solar panels before closing the consultation on the issue.

The government now plans to take the matter to the Supreme Court. Friends of the Earth has called on the government to abandon these plans and to instead focus on finding ways to safeguard jobs in the industry.

In a statement, Chris Huhne, Energy and Climate Change Secretary said: “We have already put before Parliament changes to the regulations that will bring a 21p rate into effect from April for solar pv installations from 3 March to help reduce the pressure on the budget and provide as much certainty as we can for consumers and industry.

“We want to maximise the number of installations that are possible within the available budget rather than use available money to pay a higher tariff to half the number of installations. Solar PV can have strong and vibrant future in UK and we want a lasting FITs scheme to support that future and jobs in the industry.”