Press Release
**COURT UNANIMOUSLY THROWS OUT GOVERNMENT APPEAL**
- Secretary of State actions confirmed illegal - not entitled to change solar Feed-in Tariff retrospectively
- Appeal court refuses Secretary of State permission to go to Supreme Court
- Solar industry calls for fair and just FIT that isn’t only for the rich
25th January 2012, London –Today, Sam Grodzinski, HomeSun’s QC, led HomeSun, Friends of the Earth and Solarcentury to victory as the Government lost its appeal against The High Court ruling that Government acted unlawfully.
HomeSun CEO, Daniel Green, said:
“Four Judges, including three in The Court of Appeal, have now called the Government’s actions illegal. That’s a 4-Nil victory and a decisive ruling that Government may not make retrospective changes to the FIT because, as Lord Justice Moses concludes, to do so ‘would be to take away an existing element without statutory authority’.
“The Secretary of State has failed to have proper regard for the rights conferred by the FIT, which aims to encourage homeowners to generate their own energy. Like a Government bond, that rate is fixed depending on the date the installation becomes eligible and Government cannot change it as they choose.
“Both this appeal and the Judicial Review in The High Court would not have been required had DECC simply followed its own process and allowed the industry, that it claims to support, time to prepare for a lower Feed-in Tariff.
“Almost everybody except DECC have appreciated the potential and importance of the solar industry – from The National Trust, the Church of England through to the CBI as well as the British people. Surely this must be the point at which Chris Huhne stops taking the side of the big six energy companies and realize that solar is part of our future.”
On the next steps Government should take, HomeSun CEO, Daniel Green, said:
“The Government must now move on and deliver a Feed in Tariff which is fair and not just for the rich. This means, dropping the so called ‘aggregator tariff’ which will discriminate against companies trying to provide free solar or low cost solar and punish private homeowners that don’t have £1000s in the bank. Solar should not be just for the rich.
“The big six energy providers have been shown in many surveys to be amongst the least favourite companies in the UK. The recent court case successes, in both The High Court and now The Court of Appeal, further demonstrate that HomeSun is prepared to stand up on behalf of the British public against unfair practices and relentless energy price rises even if it means taking them, or the government, on in court.”
The Government has been refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
ENDS
Notes to editors
· For all installations the FIT remains at 43.3p for 25 years until the Government lays a lawful draft modification to the present rates before Parliament for a minimum of 40 days (meaning that the earliest any new rate can kick in is 3rd March).
· The Government’s premature action before Christmas created a massive spike in solar installations between 31st October and 12th December, which has ended up costing the FIT budget £100 million. A graph illustrating this spike has been published on the DECC website and is available on request from HomeSun.
· The current legacy for all installs up until Dec 12th (including other technologies) is~£268m per annum. This means all of next year’s budget is already spent and substantially exceeded, and even 2013/14’s entire budget is already gone.
· HomeSun’s case was handled by Asserson Law Offices (ALO), a full-service international law firm working closely with major international clients on a range of complex litigious and non-litigious matters in all areas of corporate, commercial, public, property and planning law. ALO is listed in Chambers Global among the top 30 firms for dispute resolution in the UK.
· Legal challenges were brought by HomeSun, Friends of the Earth and Solarcentury. Other interested parties were SecondNature Partnership, Encraft Ltd, Ardenham Energy Ltd, Morecambe Bay Community Renewable Limited and Ouse Valley Energy Services Company Limited.
About HomeSun
HomeSun, the solar specialist, has been making it easy for thousands of homeowners to generate their own energy with Free Solar and SolarShare, with free maintenance for 25 years.
HomeSun has a big vision that is almost breathtakingly simple: we want to revolutionize the way that people power their homes by making domestic renewable energy commonplace, easy and affordable, starting with Solar PV. At HomeSun, we would like to think that homes that are not self-sufficient in some way will be the odd ones out, not the other way round. In the not too distant future, most homes could be able to produce some of their own energy in some way - energy that is clean, that saves money, improves the homes' value and cuts carbon emissions.
For more information, please visit www.homesun.com
Press Contact
Mary Burtt will be at The Court of Appeal, please contact her on 07808 130 377
HomeSun Public Relations Manager
Tel: 020 8782 1187
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