Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Barker of Battle and Angela Smith
Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)
T8. Speaking in the House on 9 February, the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker) said he expected to see“steady growth in the number of people who will be employed”—in the solar industry—“until 2015 and beyond.”—[Official Report, 9 February 2012; Vol. 545, c. 479.]Why then have 6,000 people in the solar industry lost their jobs since last summer?
Gregory Barker
We have now put the whole solar industry on a much more stable foundation. We shall shortly be publishing our plans for a feed-in tariff system that really can go forward into the next decade and beyond, with a real sense of ambition. It is affordable, it is ambitious and it will bring real clarity to the industry.