Jan 22 2007
If you want a mini wind turbine, a solar panel or any other piece of micro-renewable kit and need the grant - bad luck. Householders will now have to wait until 1st February to make an application.
REA members did not want householder grants to be rationed in this way. The obvious solution is to put more money in. The worst possible response is to put the brakes on spending – as it constrains the market, and threatens our members’ livelihoods.
“Small companies like ours have invested and risked a lot of money to enter this market,” said Matt Hogan of Revolution Power. “This will cripple our business, as our clients will choose to wait rather than go ahead this month. They might even get so frustrated they drop their plans altogether. We work very hard to help combat climate change, why are we being hobbled by the government over such a paltry amount of money?”
“This week we have heard that the DTI is thinking of spending hundreds of millions on a mission to the moon. A couple of tens of millions would make all the difference to this grant programme. Our Government seems keener to spend money escaping the planet than in trying to save it,” said Philip Wolfe, Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association.
“It wouldn’t be the first time that the householder grant programme has been topped up,” said Graham Meeks, of the REA. “It was good news when another £6.2m was put in, but the bad news was that this was taken from another element of the programme. That was robbing Peter to pay Paul, and the repercussions of that are now hitting our members”.
As of today, householders filling out the online application are told
“Thank you for your application for a Low Carbon Building Programme grant. Unfortunately funds for this month have already been fully allocated. Funding is made available from the 1st of every month until fully allocated. You are advised to reapply then.”
The DTI introduced a monthly allocation cap of £500,000 for householders wishing to apply for capital grants to install micro-generation in December last year. The money ran out on the 20th December.