Today in the Commons, Labour is calling a debate in which all MPs will have the opportunity to vote against the Government’s misguided plans to sacrifice the solar industry on the altar of George Osborne’s failing economic policy.
Why is everyone getting hot and bothered about solar you might ask? It’s simple. The UK needs to move away from traditional energy sources over the coming decades; use energy more efficiently and develop new energy sources that won’t ruin the planet.
In a short space of time, our nation must change the way we produce and consumer our energy, in every home in Britain; whilst ensuring that energy prices are affordable, jobs are created and nobody need worry about the lights going out.
The Labour Government addressed this challenge by encouraging large wind-power, biomass and other renewable projects; but it captured the public interest by introducing feed in tariffs; a payment of 43p for every kilowatt hour of electricity people generated themselves. This rewarded families who played their part and helped them pay for installing the most common new energy source – solar.
In just 18 months, over 90,000 households have installed solar; over 100 new firms were registering each week; and employment in the sector was 25,000 and growing. Everyone saw the benefits. Housing associations and ALMOs planned to lift over 100,000 households out of fuel poverty by installing solar energy; and in Glasgow, construction apprentices are trained in solar installation. When the Tory-led Government’s Plan A is falling apart, at least this Labour legacy was delivering growth and jobs.
Then the Tories gave six weeks notice that the tariff would be cut to 21p from 12 December 2012. As if to punish social landlords, their tariff was cut to 15.8p per kWh.
Contracts are being cancelled. The industry is slowing as sales dry up. Social housing plans are being scrapped and investor confidence has been hammered. Firms will close. All in a sector that was growing at a time when UKplc needs a plan for jobs and growth.
An unnecessary blow delivered to an industry that has been investing and innovating; a blow to British manufacturing – many PV panels are made in Wales – and a slap in the face to all those families who wanted to play their part in producing renewable energy.
Why has it happened? Because the Tories placed a financial cap on Labour’s scheme up to 2014/15, a cap so badly thought out that the cap will be reached by April 2012.
The Tories claim to have introduced the cap to save energy customer’s money – because the cost of feed in tariffs is spread across all energy bills. But it currently costs less than £1 per year per household. The Government claimed this could reach £25 by 2020 – crocodile tears about a rise of £1-2 per year from a Government cutting winter fuel payments by £50-£100 this autumn and doing nothing about energy bills rising by £175 in six months.
Their new tariffs deliberately make the scheme unattainable to the many, denying nearly 90% of homes, below a C energy rating, from even applying for the feed in tariff.
Having made it unattainable to most; they are making unattractive to the rest by cutting the tariff by more than half – so most solar schemes will barely pay for themselves, even over 15 or 20 years. As DECC’s impact report states, their scheme “reduces the uptake by up to 92%”.
This industry is in its infancy. It is just 3% the size of the Germany’s solar industry, which employs over 250,000 and has installed half of the world’s solar panels. Meanwhile, the UK has slipped from 3rd to 13th in the world for investment in renewable.
The Government does have a choice. It could have worked with the industry on plans to install solar in millions of homes, it could have a staged reduction in the tariff as the industry grew, as the German Government has; and they could have given certainty to investors by supporting long term growth.
That they don’t understand this shows how out of touch the Tories are.
And only Labour is supports the aspirations of those families who want to play their part in producing the energy of the future.
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Caroline Flint MP is shadow secretary of state for energy and climate change
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One could argue that if the industry is reliant on subsidy then it is not viable. You can produce figures all day about contracts and the size of an “industry” but in the end you require damnd for the product.
This is not sustainable, if the Governmnebt was setting up a new economy here then fine, but as you have ststaed withour Government support the industry if we can call it that collapses and falls behind other countries. Another economic misconception is that all of a sudden Flint and the Labour Party are using statistics that compare national Government performance…where has this wonderful Global Economy gone that you keep singing the praises of?
Surely if we are one Global Economy lottle things like National Boundries are irrelevent?
This is nonesense and it simply does not endure even the simplist scrutiny. The solar industry must seek to make itself competitve by the very rules you have all advocated and still advocate today and as for attaching some kind of false sense of National identity to all this is just unbelievably hypocritical and treats the readers like children.
We all know where Labours interests lie, in maintaining dodgy contracts with Government, sending more businesses and work over to China and in doing everything corrupt except actually representing the true interests of the British public.
Yes we need sustainable energy, yes we need to invest in new technologies and industries, but we don’t carry them along because of their own inadequacies and inability to compete in the market. Attacking competitve Capitalism in favour of dodgy fixes is Labour through and through.
Go home Caroline and read some Adam Smith. Then read it again.
One could argue that if the industry is reliant on subsidy then it is not viable. You can produce figures all day about contracts and the size of an “industry” but in the end you require damnd for the product.
This is not sustainable, if the Government was setting up a new economy here then fine, but as you have stated without Government support the industry if we can call it that collapses and falls behind other countries. Another economic misconception is that all of a sudden Flint and the Labour Party are using statistics that compare National Government performance…where has this wonderful Global Economy gone that you keep singing the praises of and sold most of our home-grown businesses too all too easily and happily?
Surely if we are one Global Economy lottle things like National Boundries are irrelevent?
This is nonesense and it simply does not endure even the simplist scrutiny. The solar industry must seek to make itself competitve by the very rules you have all advocated and still advocate today and as for attaching some kind of false sense of National identity to all this is just unbelievably hypocritical and treats the readers like children.
We all know where Labours interests lie, in maintaining dodgy contracts with Government, sending more businesses and work over to China and in doing everything corrupt except actually representing the true interests of the British public and british business.
Yes we need sustainable energy, yes we need to invest in new technologies and industries, but we don’t carry them along because of their own inadequacies and inability to compete in the market. Attacking competitve Capitalism in favour of dodgy fixes is Labour through and through. You hate competition as much as you hate democracy.
And for all your talk of being pro-market you still serve the banks and for Labour this is terrible as it masquerades as a progressive party and yet is unwilling to do anything progressive other than moan about the cuts they themselves would have been forced to impliment because we all know who is really running the country and who the muppets really are and they are not the public.
Go home Caroline or even better get yourself a proper job and get off the scrounge and you’ll learn how businesses really function and how they have suffered under your insane de-regulatory regime.