Household Wind And Solar Grants Will Run Out In Hours Tomorrows, Greens Predict - Government Letting People Of Norfolk Down

28th February - The Low Carbon buildings programme for household renewables is on track to run out of funds on the first day of the month, the fourth successive month that grants have run out early. Greens fear that Labour's tiny grants system for household renewable energy will descend into a grant-grabbing farce, as applications take up available cash within hours.

Councillor Rupert Read, Norfolk Green Party Press Officer, said: "We call on the government to end this farce. They talk about stopping dangerous climate change, but here we have real people trying to take real action to curb our emissions, and the government is failing them.

In East Anglia, 632 people applied for grants to help with renewable projects, on February 1st; each time, the total amount was exhausted in less than a day. Anyone else who wanted a grant couldn't get one (see www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk for details). This is the fourth successive month that the government's grants have run out - yet they are not taking action. Labour are letting the people of East Anglia down.

The Green Party challenges Labour to sort out the chaos caused to individuals and suppliers - to provide money right now so the grants don't keep running out. We call on the government to put an extra £2 million into the LCBP on 1st March to cover this month's shortfall and then use the budget to put adequate funds into the grants programme. Right now, we would supplement the current fund of £80 million in the three year LCBP with a further £300 million over 5 years.

Longer term, Greens would provide about £1 billion a year in loans for renewable energy, rather than Labour's £30 million a year in grants. The Green Party in Germany got this right - that's why they've cornered the market in solar power, installing over half the world's photovoltaic panels, while Britain lags behind. We're failing consumers and business alike."

The LCBP scheme was designed to boost the installation of renewable energy technologies on houses and public/community buildings, through grants of up to 50% for solar photovoltaic panels, a flat £400 for solar thermal, which produces hot water, and 30% for wind turbines, hydro-electric installations or air-source heat pumps.

When the £3.5m originally allocated for the first year ran out after just six months, in November 2006, then Energy minister Malcolm Wicks responded by shifting other funds into the household pot from elsewhere in the LCBP fund - £6.2 million. However, to ensure the grant system lasted for the planned three years (to April 2008), the DTI divided the money into monthly allocations of - initially - half a million pounds. Since the monthly cap was brought in, the monthly pot has run out on 20th December, January 12th and then after just 12 hours on 1st of February.

County Councillor Andrew Boswell added, "Tomorrow, the 'Earth Event' opens at the Forum, in the centre of Norwich. Let the government show its commitment to stopping dangerous climate change, tomorrow on March 1st: by putting a lot more money into the pot for renewables-grants, as Greens certainly would if we were in charge at Downing Street."