‘Greenest government ever’ is taken to the High Court by Friends of the Earth

19th December, 2011 by Ben Mansfield

Solar installers outside the High Court to highlight the 29,000 jobs that could be lost through Government cuts to solar tariff payments © FriendsOfTheEarth

The government’s approach of using public consultations to reassure voters about cuts has had an unhappy history. One of the first consultations which went awry was on the plans to sell off British forests; a move which proved so widely unpopular that the environment secretary Caroline Spelman not only abandoned the idea, but apologized for so much as having suggested it in the first place. NHS reforms also proved highly controversial, with opposition from health care professionals forcing David Cameron to announce “real changes” to the proposed reforms. And yesterday we saw another addition to the government’s list of consultation-related woes, as a High Court judge ruled in favour of Friends of the Earth and two solar companies’ request for a full hearing into government plans to halve green energy financial subsidies. The point of contention in this case is two-fold. First, the changes are to be implemented two weeks before the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s consultation is due to end, thus defeating the object of a consultation and suggesting that it is a mere PR exercise. And second, that the sudden changes will unfairly hit businesses and households who have already made green investments on the basis of the subsidies they expected to receive. Environmental charity Friends of the Earth have criticised the plans as illegal for these reasons, as well as making the case that they are unfair and unsustainable.

So this is another consultation story which has thrown a rather unimpressive light on the government’s claims to be ‘listening’. Cameron’s promise that the coalition would be the “greenest government ever”, meanwhile, was already thoroughly undermined last week by the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, in which Mr Osborne criticised EU environmental regulations at length, and in doing so provoked an angry response from a wide-ranging list of environmental groups in the form of a letter to the Observer. Add to this the reports that Liberal Democrat Environment Secretary Chris Huhne is furious at not having been consulted about Osborne’s comments, and we have a picture of a government that fails to consult even its own cabinet.

A joint statement has been signed by more than 200 organizations calling on the government to reconsider its plans, as political pressure mounts. The legal hearings will take place next week.

Tags: consultation, cuts, Environment, green, jobs, solar energy