Cathy Jamieson
Main Page: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)(12 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
1. What recent representations he has received on his decision to reduce the feed-in tariff for solar PV.
Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)
12. What recent representations he has received on his decision to reduce the feed-in tariff for solar PV.
Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab)
14. What recent representations he has received on his decision to reduce the feed-in tariff for solar PV.
Chris Huhne
I entirely reject the idea that there is no future for the industry. The reality is that we would be able to support at least twice as many installations at the new tariff rate as we could under the old one.
The hon. Lady asks about the costs of the legal cases. I merely point out to her that we are spending a few thousand pounds in order to save consumers £1.5 billion, which is what the cost would have been had we left the case to run. The reality is that the previous Labour Government introduced a scheme that was fundamentally flawed. As with other issues, this Government are putting Labour’s mess right.
Cathy Jamieson
Is not the truth of the matter that this episode has led to a frenzy of additional applications? There has been a 1,100% increase in the number of people trying to get systems installed in their homes in a short period of time. Businesses in my constituency tell me that that has caused chaos in the supply chain. Those systems also had to be installed at a time of extremely poor weather in Scotland. What does the Minister say in response to those points?
Chris Huhne
The hon. Lady conveniently omits to mention that the design flaw in the scheme introduced by the Leader of the Opposition ensured that there was absolutely no way of automatically reducing the tariffs in line with what was going on in the real world, despite the fact that other countries—Germany, for example—had introduced such schemes. All we had to do was find out what was happening in Germany and model our scheme on theirs. Did the Labour Government bother to learn those lessons? No. The result is that we have to clean up the mess.