Philip Hollobone
Main Page: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Mr Davey
I am surprised the hon. Lady reaches that conclusion. Since the 21p tariff came in 10 weeks ago, there have been more than 26,000 installations with 86 MW of capacity, which is equivalent to the installation rate achieved in August 2011, when the tariff was at 43p. The installation rate in the period is 1.7 times what it was in the same period last year.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
Feed-in tariffs are not the only way to encourage solar PV installations. Can more be done with building regulations, especially to encourage solar to be built in to new-build properties at the start?
Mr Davey
I am sure local authorities will look at that proposal, but the key thing is to ensure that our new, more stable and predictable regime supports the solar industry, as we believe it will. We need to ensure that the message goes out that the solar industry is back in business and on a sound footing. There will be many more solar installations compared with what happened under the solar installation regime we inherited from the Labour party.