HC 1605 Energy and Climate Change and Environmental Audit CommitteesWritten evidence submitted by A M Borrill & Son
We are writing about the consequences our business faces due to the government’s management of the current FIT’s consultation in particular the deadline date of the 12 December.
A M Borrill and Son are a mixed arable and poultry farmers based in North Lincolnshire. In April this year we installed a pilot 10kw scheme. We planned to expand this scheme to 30kw and also install a 50kw scheme to supply 30% of the electricity to the poultry unit and potato store this coming winter.
Installation contracts were signed with Renenergy on the 21 October 2011 and a substantial deposit made by bank transfer at the same time. We were therefore contractually and financially bound to the project.
Being such a large project for the business, our bank had agreed to 100% funding for the two schemes over a 10 year period.
However we were unable to push on with the project as both needed planning permission which could take up to nine weeks. Both also required a G59 grid connection application which could also take up to nine weeks.
The Minister’s decision on the 31 October came as a complete blow to our business because there is no way that the projects could be completed within the 12 December deadline. The new Feed In Tariffs make the projects complete non-starters. Who knows what bank interest rates could be in 10 years time? Both schemes have been put on hold even though we are contractually bound to our installers.
How can businesses make long term strategic decisions with such knee jerk decisions?
We can see the government’s point that the FIT budget may be stretched but it is totally unreasonable to target existing projects such as ours. It would have made more sense to stop all new projects with contracts signed after the 31 October until the end of the consultation period.
We are therefore asking the committee to propose that all existing projects that were contractually bound and can provide through bank statements that deposits were paid to installers before the announcement on the 31 October should be allowed to go ahead at the current FIT rates even though the completion date may be after the December deadline.
I hope the Committees find my evidence useful and if further information is required please do not hesitate to contact me.
18 November 2011