Isra-Mart srl : Labour refuses to accept blame for feed-in tariff fiasco

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Labour has accused the coalition of rewriting history with its attempts to blame the previous administration for setting up an over-generous feed-in tariff incentive that has forced ministers to pursue deep cuts in the level of incentives on offer for larger solar installations.

Climate Minister Greg Barker has alleged that the coalition's controversial decision to propose cuts of between 40 and 70 per cent to the feed-in tariffs available to all solar installations with over 50kW of capacity was necessitated by the previous Labour government's failure to anticipate that the scheme would result in large numbers of solar farms eating into the available funding.
However, in an exclusive interview with BusinessGreen, Shadow Climate Minister Huw Irranca-Davies rejected suggestions that Labour was to blame for the controversial feed-in tariff review, accusing Conservatives and Lib Dems of ignoring the fact that when in opposition they had lobbied for the scheme to be extended to cover larger installations with up to 5MW of capacity.

"The feed-in tariff ... was set up, with Conservative support and Conservative pushing, because Charles Hendry wanted us to go further with bands that went right up to 5MW," he said. "The potential was always in this scheme to see larger developments."

Irranca-Davies also rejected Barker's accusation that cuts to feed-in tariffs were necessary given the scale of the deficit bequeathed to the coalition by the Brown government.

"I would question how a minister can espouse great optimism for the renewables sector and very ambitious predictions for green jobs and green growth, then at the same time say: 'Hey, things are a bit too tight to make that happen right now,'" he said.

"When you are in a recession and on your way out of recession these are exactly the sort of mechanisms that should be used to keep people in jobs, and generate jobs, and drive towards our carbon emission targets, and put both literally and metaphorically power in people's hands."

Labour is now calling on the government to narrow the reach of the review and ensure that mid-sized and rooftop solar installations do not face deep cuts to the level of incentives available.

Irranca-Davies also argued that the coalition should deliver a clearer "degression" system for feed-in tariffs, whereby developers are properly consulted before any future cuts to incentives are announced.

"My worry is, whether it's an error of judgement or a cock up in their calculations, [the feed-in tariff review] is a very bad signal to the wider renewable sector about the way in which these ministers are now handling engagement with the industry," he said.

"Who is to say this won't happen again? That is the tragedy: ministers have thrown a real dummy to the industry and the industry will now say: 'Hey, when is the next one coming?'"

The government has said that its wider review of feed-in tariffs, which is due to be completed later this year, will look to introduce a more effective degression system.