Opposing the proposals
There has been unparalleled opposition to the government's proposals since the consultation was launched on 31st October
For the reasons we have outlined on this site, the government's proposals are highly contentious and have raised substantial opposition.
Legal challenge
On 21st December 2011, the judge upheld the legal challenge against the proposals by Friends of the Earth and others, saying it was potentially illegal.
On 4th January 2012, DECC said it was seeking to appeal against this decision. Following a hearing on 13th January 2012 the court ruled on 25th January against the government, confirming that their proposed 12th December 2011 effective tariff reduction date amounted to a retrospective adjustment.
Meanwhile on 19th January the government revised the effective date to 3rd March as further described here.
However they published a statement on 26th January indicating they were seeking leave to appeal again - to the supreme court.
Were that appeal allowed and to succeed, the effective date for the PV tariff reduction would remain at 12th December 2011, otherwise it will be 3rd March 2012.
Where to next?
Presumably if the government wins an appeal, it will proceed to implement its proposals as tabled.
If it loses, the choices seem to be:
- To implement the same changes, but at a later date - probably 1st April, but a slightly earlier date may be possible;
- To settle for a later implementation date, but at that time reduce the tariffs even further than originally proposed; or
- We are advised that DECC has not ruled out closing the Feed-In Tariff scheme altogether.
All in all, this looks like an exercise in turning the success of the Feed-In Tariffs into a confusing and messy failure.
Parliamentary debate
An opposition-sponsored debate in the House of Commons took place on Wednesday 23rd November. Although the motion was lost by 297 votes to 226, there were a number of government dissenters.
Mass lobby of Parliament
An estimated 500 people attended events on 22nd November to raise awareness of the problems. It was organised by an industry-led pressure group.
Press coverage
See articles in the Financial Times and the Guardian.
The root cause of the problem
The government miscalculated how well the Feed-In Tariffs would be received, and set an unrealistically low assessment of the cost of the scheme. At the time no specific cap on expenditure was set.
In the Spending Review, despite the announcements made at the time, they committed to saving a further 10% on this amount and apparently commuted this value to a firm cap for the four years to April 2015.
Most of this money is already committed, as shown here. So if they are to stick to the 'spending envelope' - which we think is wrong - the level of take up needs to slump to 15% of the present trend.
