Labour MP calls for parliamentary debate into community energy tax relief cuts

A Labour MP has called for the government to hold a parliamentary debate into cuts to community energy tax relief initiatives.

Steve Reed, MP for Croydon North and shadow minister for local government, made the plea during a parliamentary session in the House of Commons this afternoon.

Reed, who also serves for the Co-operative Party, said that the decision to remove EIS, SEIS and SITR tax relief for community energy programmes had “severely undermined” the market.

His plea comes two days after Gavin Shuker, Labour & Co-operative MP for Luton South, wrote an open letter to George Osborne calling on the chancellor to fully explain the policy reversal and detail any estimation the Treasury had made regarding the effect of the decision on both jobs and investment.

Shuker said that the “disappointing” decision compounded other moves by the Conservative Party to remove pre-accreditation and to drastically reduce the feed-in tariff, and also complained that it runs “contrary to support explicitly stated within the Conservative Party Manifesto” for this year’s election.

Aside from a statement issued to Solar Power Portal last week that alluded to a need to stamp down on cases linking community energy investments with tax avoidance, the Treasury has not been forthcoming with answers over the cuts, which have been roundly attacked since they were made public last week.

Posted on Nov 06, 2015.