Attack on plans to cut power subsidies

LOCAL Liberal Democrats have slammed government plans to slash subsidies for renewable energy schemes.

The Tories plan to reduce payments for a “Feed in” tariff (FiT) by up to 90 per cent from January to householders installing solar panels or community owned renewable power.

Under the previous Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, generous FiT payments were made that encouraged take-up of alternative energy sources. Many feed surplus producion back to the national grid.

Oldham’s Lib-Dem leader, Councillor Sykes, said: “The Coalition Government had an excellent record of providing support to community energy with over 5,500 such projects established. The current Government claims to want to continue this support, yet its actions run contrary to these intentions.”

The reduced subsidy will be especially felt by householders with solar panels, or by investors in roof-mounted, community-owned solar schemes. Their payment will fall to 1.63p from 12.47p per kilowatt hour.

Councillor Sykes added: “I recognise that over time the Government may need to reduce its spending on renewable support overall but the FiT regime has worked well to link ever-decreasing subsidies with decreasing costs.

“Community energy makes an increasing contribution to Britain’s energy needs, and on some days renewables provide more power than nuclear - and all this power generation comes without increasing the nation’s carbon footprint.

“The country desperately needs investment in community owned clean energy projects to fulfil its targets on CO2 emissions. The Government appears willing to hugely subsidise the nuclear industry, but a much smaller subsidy to renewables would yield much greater dividends.”