The Court of Appeal is yet to pass judgement on the Government’s bid (Friday 13 January 2012) to overturn last month’s High Court ruling that its plans to cut solar subsidy payments are illegal. The judges indicated that a decision by the end of next week would be "rather optimistic”.

Friends of the Earth is now urging the Government to end the uncertainty hanging over the solar industry by coming up with a plan to safeguard around 30,000 jobs currently under threat from Ministers’ plans.

The environmental campaigning charity is calling on the Government to come up with a Plan B, including:

• Putting regulations before Parliament on Monday to enable solar tariff payments to be cut by the end of February – in a forward looking and planned way, in line with falling installation costs.
• Increasing the amount of money available to the scheme using the multi-million pound tax revenues generated by solar firms – this will safeguard the industry and enable more homes, businesses and communities to switch to clean energy.

Friends of the Earth 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.

“David Cameron should put a proposal before Parliament on Monday to cut solar subsidy rates before the end of February – and give the industry some much-needed certainty.

“More money could easily be found to save solar from the multi-million pounds in tax that solar firms generate.

"Win or lose the Government must breathe life back into UK solar to help more cash-strapped families free themselves from soaring fuel bills by plugging into clean British energy.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. Friends of the Earth’s legal challenge to cuts in solar incentives is part of its Final Demand campaign, which calls for energy we can all afford and a public inquiry into the power and influence of the Big Six energy companies. Find out more at www.foe.co.uk/finaldemand.

2. The High Court said that proposals to cut payments for any solar scheme completed after 12 December – 11 days before the official consultation closed – were unlawful. A working transcript of the court proceedings is available from Friends of the Earth’s press office – 020 7566 1649.

3. The Government's proposals have already had a devastating impact. Countless planned clean energy schemes have been abandoned and thousands of jobs are under threat. In December construction firm Carillion warned 4,500 workers their jobs were at risk because of the Government's proposals: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/01/carillion-job-cuts-solar-energy
The Government’s decision to slash solar funding was described by the CBI as an ‘own goal’ in November: http://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/speeches/2011/11/john-cridlands-speech-to-cbi-east-midlands-annual-dinner/. Examples of solar energy projects that have either been scrapped or are in jeopardy are available from Friends of the Earth’s press office – please call 020 7566 1649/ 07712 843 209 for more information.

4. In November last year research by Element Energy, commissioned by Friends of the Earth and the solar industry, showed that the premature cuts could threaten 29,000 jobs and lose the Treasury up to £230 million a year in tax income. It showed that additional costs to lift the cap off the scheme will be more than equalled by extra tax receipts to the exchequer and saving on unemployment benefit that would have been paid to sacked solar fitters http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/element_energy_summary.pdf.

5. Calculations by Friends of the Earth and Element Energy suggest that the Treasury receives from the solar industry at least £330m per year in income taxes, corporation tax, and VAT. Friends of the Earth's calculations also reveal that any additional costs over budget that result from restoring the cut-off date to April, as well as allowing for moderate growth in the solar industry over the next three years at lower tariff rates, could be paid for by using this tax income - not increasing the costs to consumers.

6. Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to:
•         Establish a system which enables feed-in tariff payments to fall from mid February 2012, in line with the falling cost of solar technology, in a way that supports the continued growth of the industry and jobs;
•         Increase the overall budget for feed-in tariffs using tax revenues generated by jobs created by the scheme – this will enable more households to benefit from solar power.
•         Exclude housing association, school, council and other community projects from the damaging proposal to give multi-building projects even lower financial support.
•         Only require solar projects on homes to install loft and cavity wall insulation where possible - rather than imposing much tougher energy efficiency conditions which would make 9 out of 10 householders ineligible for the scheme.

7. The feed-in tariff scheme has led to the installation of more than 100,000 solar panel projects since its introduction in April 2010 and created around 27,000 new jobs, the majority of which are now under threat.