S
solarfred
This is the email I sent to my MP yesterday after getting a transcript of the emergency questions session in parliament and other related material in reply to my first email which I sent to him last week. I was not sure whether to publish but if others can really tell their MP how it is maybe it will at least ----- a few consciences and change a few minds. I am afraid this dictat has come from the Treasury so it will likely not be changed as very few MP's have any balls whatsoever.
A bit of drama here I admit but the sentiments are all true and well meant.
Quote..
Thank you for your letter and enclosures which I have read with interest; although I followed the emergency questions session live of course. A rare moment when I actually supported the sentiments of a Labour minister who asked all the right questions but as usual no answers were forthcoming just party point scoring.
Since you wrote to me we are watching the Solar installation business implode. There is absolute panic as customers try to find an installer and installers desperately try to find enough equipment to complete installations by the deadline. This was the "panic" Greg Barker said he needed to avoid between now and April if the tariff was left unchanged.
The winners are the large wholesale suppliers who had surplus stock (which was looking worthless after 12 th December) and suddenly find a market for it - how fortunate for them. The losers are the small suppliers (SME's) who had planned for the next few projects and secured stock from long and hard negotiated supply lines direct with manufacturers in slightly smaller quantities as they are self financed. We saw our next three projects, worth some £250,000 gross, disappear as these projects were in the planners in tray. We have one project left and we are desperately trying to collect all the necessary elements to confirm to the client we can complete by the deadline. I have plenty of stock except for the vital Inverters which cost £3,000 each and therefore are not items we are able to stock in any quantity. The suppliers of these have sold out several times over. Stock destined for some customers has been diverted to other bigger customers as suppliers play games. This is the carnage that this decision has caused.
I will be left with stock destined for non domestic installs as these are the ones we had planned for. I will not be able to carry on as I need to pay the bills, service the insurance and rental contracts we have just signed and will not have sufficient cash flow going forward. I will not have sufficient funds to start something new. This was three years of hard slog with my life savings and pension all for nothing. As I had a final salary pension it has been hit once already by Labour - now it has been killed off by the Conservatives. We were about to become cashflow positive and had carefully planned for the April changes in the FIT scheme. Smaller business are nimble - but not that nimble.
Now I will be looking for a way out but ultimately the benefits office looms as I need to keep my family together financially.
I have never taken anything from the system but now as the awful truth dawns, I am terrified of what the future holds.
I am not the only one as remember the hundreds of electricians and roofers who paid £3000+ to become certified under the MCS who now have no prospects and never even got one installation to complete.
There may be some work in the next three months as the 21p tariff can work if the capital cost is low enough but that means cutting margins to the bone. Public confidence has been shattered by this so a marginal return is not a gamble they will want to take.
The proposed requirement to only pay 21p FIT to homes with a 'C' ERC rating has basically killed off the PV industry from April 2012 as most homes cannot meet the target and 9p is a complete joke. I am assuming this ERC will also be applied to the new RHI for domestic homes so I see the whole renewables business being a non starter.
I recognise your conflict of interest but you should know what is really going on in the industry right now and how this decision has caused mayhem. Just wait until the thousands of installation requests go missing in the FIT offices of the suppliers after 12th December. How many customers will have paid out thousands and not got their FIT agreement.
Thank you for your time.
Unquote.
Hopefully you can put your own spin on it but they can't say they didn't know.
A bit of drama here I admit but the sentiments are all true and well meant.
Quote..
Thank you for your letter and enclosures which I have read with interest; although I followed the emergency questions session live of course. A rare moment when I actually supported the sentiments of a Labour minister who asked all the right questions but as usual no answers were forthcoming just party point scoring.
Since you wrote to me we are watching the Solar installation business implode. There is absolute panic as customers try to find an installer and installers desperately try to find enough equipment to complete installations by the deadline. This was the "panic" Greg Barker said he needed to avoid between now and April if the tariff was left unchanged.
The winners are the large wholesale suppliers who had surplus stock (which was looking worthless after 12 th December) and suddenly find a market for it - how fortunate for them. The losers are the small suppliers (SME's) who had planned for the next few projects and secured stock from long and hard negotiated supply lines direct with manufacturers in slightly smaller quantities as they are self financed. We saw our next three projects, worth some £250,000 gross, disappear as these projects were in the planners in tray. We have one project left and we are desperately trying to collect all the necessary elements to confirm to the client we can complete by the deadline. I have plenty of stock except for the vital Inverters which cost £3,000 each and therefore are not items we are able to stock in any quantity. The suppliers of these have sold out several times over. Stock destined for some customers has been diverted to other bigger customers as suppliers play games. This is the carnage that this decision has caused.
I will be left with stock destined for non domestic installs as these are the ones we had planned for. I will not be able to carry on as I need to pay the bills, service the insurance and rental contracts we have just signed and will not have sufficient cash flow going forward. I will not have sufficient funds to start something new. This was three years of hard slog with my life savings and pension all for nothing. As I had a final salary pension it has been hit once already by Labour - now it has been killed off by the Conservatives. We were about to become cashflow positive and had carefully planned for the April changes in the FIT scheme. Smaller business are nimble - but not that nimble.
Now I will be looking for a way out but ultimately the benefits office looms as I need to keep my family together financially.
I have never taken anything from the system but now as the awful truth dawns, I am terrified of what the future holds.
I am not the only one as remember the hundreds of electricians and roofers who paid £3000+ to become certified under the MCS who now have no prospects and never even got one installation to complete.
There may be some work in the next three months as the 21p tariff can work if the capital cost is low enough but that means cutting margins to the bone. Public confidence has been shattered by this so a marginal return is not a gamble they will want to take.
The proposed requirement to only pay 21p FIT to homes with a 'C' ERC rating has basically killed off the PV industry from April 2012 as most homes cannot meet the target and 9p is a complete joke. I am assuming this ERC will also be applied to the new RHI for domestic homes so I see the whole renewables business being a non starter.
I recognise your conflict of interest but you should know what is really going on in the industry right now and how this decision has caused mayhem. Just wait until the thousands of installation requests go missing in the FIT offices of the suppliers after 12th December. How many customers will have paid out thousands and not got their FIT agreement.
Thank you for your time.
Unquote.
Hopefully you can put your own spin on it but they can't say they didn't know.