Oral Answers to Questions

Michelle Donelan Excerpts

Thursday 19th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

14. What assessment she has made of the effect of proposed changes to feed-in tariffs on solar power companies in the UK.

[Michelle Donelan (Chippenham) (Con)]

15. What assessment her Department has made of the effect of proposed changes to feed-in tariffs on the number of jobs in the solar power industry.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

19. What assessment she has made of the effect of proposed changes to feed-in tariffs on solar power companies in the UK.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michelle Donelan]

A number of leading solar community projects and green energy companies are based in my constituency, including Good Energy, which supplies more than 50,000 UK consumers. People who work in the industry fully understand the need for it to be sustainable, but they feel that a drop of up to 87% overnight is more than the industry can cope with, in terms of local jobs and growth. Will the Minister look at what more can be done to support existing projects and for mechanisms to keep the solar industry alive until grid parity is reached?

[Andrea Leadsom]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this very important matter for her constituency. I can absolutely assure her that we are looking at it carefully. I had a round table meeting with a number of solar firms and heard their views at first hand before the consultation closed. We are looking carefully at the more than 55,000 responses and will come forward with our policy response as soon as we can.