On 23 March, The Supreme Court finally laid to rest the ongoing saga of whether or not it was legal for the Secretary of State for Climate Change to seek to introduce backdated cuts to FiT rates for solar PV. The Court has rejected a bid by the Secretary of State to appeal the Court of Appeal's judgement that his proposed action was illegal, as reported in our e-update of 26 January, 2012.

This judgement leaves the Secretary of State with no further legal options to pursue.

The decision is good news for anyone who installed and registered solar PV after the original December 12, 2011, deadline and before the March 3, 2012. They will qualify for the original tariff levels of 43 pence, index-linked for 25 years. Schemes registered after 1 April, 2012 will qualify only for the reduced FiT for solar. 

© MacRoberts 2011

Disclaimer

The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Recipients should not act on the basis of the information in this e-update without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.