Liberal Democrats fight to protect Feed-in Tariffs

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change Lynne Featherstone has tabled a fatal motion in the House of Lords against the Government cuts to Feed-in Tariffs. A Feed-in Tariff is a payment you can get if you generate your own electricity (eg with solar panels or a wind turbine) and you can also sell energy back to the grid.

The staggering 65 per cent cuts to Feed-in Tariffs will be debated today (2nd February). These plans will shrink the currently thriving solar industry by over half its size and put 19,000 jobs at risk, according to the Government's own predictions.

It also throws into jeopardy the Government's ability to meet climate change targets, despite coming so soon after the global agreement in Paris where Britain took a leading role.

Liberal Democrats have called on Labour to work together to defeat the Government on this issue.

Energy and Climate Change spokesperson Lynne Featherstone said: "This is short sighted and flies in the face of the Paris Agreement, which the Government was so keen to claim credit for.

"Britain has the opportunity to be the world leader in green technology and become the workshop of the world for this growing market.

"But instead, the Conservatives are risking jobs as well as our planet in order to appease the prejudices held by some on their backbenches who simply have no interest in supporting renewable industry.

"This is a sector which is expected to attract trillions in global sales in the next two decades. Failing to invest at this critical time in its development is quite simply economic stupidity."