Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impacts on the growth of community energy projects of changes to the Feed-in Tariff scheme and the removal of tax relief for such projects.

The Department provides quarterly updates on the number of and capacity of installations within the Feed-in Tariff scheme registered as community groups and schools. These are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-and-school-feed-in-tariff-statistics

It should be noted that these statistics may be incomplete because it is not a requirement for a community group or school to identify itself, unless it applies for a specific benefit available to community groups or schools.

The subsidised generation of renewable energy by community organisations ceased to be a qualifying activity for the Government’s tax-advantaged venture capital schemes from November 30 2015. The Government published a Tax Information and Impact Note, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-exclusion-of-energy-generation-from-venture-capital-schemes/income-tax-exclusion-of-energy-generation-from-venture-capital-schemes.

The Government has made no further assessment of the impact of this measure on the growth of community energy projects.