MILLIONS UNSPENT ON ECO HOMES IMPROVEMENTS

29-03-2008

Selly Oak MP Lynne Jones has identified a multi-million pound underspend in a government scheme to boost sales of solar panels. So far less than half of a £19 million fund has been spent – leaving £11million to be distributed over the next three months.

The About My Area/B14 wesbite reports Jones as saying that, “at this rate it will take 15 years to spend the money.”

That might be an exaggeration, but there’s no doubt that Jones is on to a serious point.

The Low Carbon Buildings scheme was set up to provide homeowners with grants to install solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable forms of energy generation.

Other European countries have made significant inroads in reducing their carbon footprint by encouraging what's called ‘micro-generation schemes'.

In the UK it seems the government massively underestimated the interest householders would show in taking such direct action to tackle climate change.

The demand for grants was so high that a limit was introduced in December 2006 on the amount of money that could be given each month. This then meant that the entire allocation was snapped up by green homeowners within hours.

Instead of increasing the funds available for tackling climate change in this way, the government then responded with a grant limit of £2,500 per home - which Lynne Jones says is simply not enough.

“Now, the level of the grants has been pitched too low", she said, "and applicants are dropping out once they discover what funding they will get.

“Unfortunately we seem to have gone from one extreme to the other. This is disastrous for the micro generation industry; manufacturers and installers are losing anticipated business and the whole system is getting clogged up."

Energy Minister Malcolm Wickes said the government will announce new proposals shortly.

(This story from http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/West-Midlands/Birmingham/B14)