Up to 4,500 Carillion jobs at risk
A total of 4,500 'green' jobs are in jeopardy at construction services giant Carillion. The Wolverhampton-based company said its energy services division was at risk of redundancy after the government slashed subsidies for solar panels.
Carillion has now started a 90-day consultation with the 4,500-strong division, which formerly traded as Eaga.
The move comes just weeks after the government announced it would cut the financial benefits to its feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme by more than half.
Carillion Energy Services is currently the sole supplier of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels for one of the UK's largest energy schemes, Homesun.
In a statement yesterday, the company said the government’s plans for "much larger and earlier than expected cuts to FITs would reduce the size of the solar PV market significantly".
Carillion added that it was "too early to speculate" on how many job losses would be made, and said it would "explore all opportunities" for redeployment.
The statement added: "In order to react to the effects of this on our business, we have launched a statutory 90-day consultation process with our people on how we can reshape our business.
"Solar PV is only part of Carillion Energy Services’ business, which remains focused on energy services markets that continue to offer strong prospects for growth."
The government announced it would halve the benefits given to homes taking part in the solar PV scheme after a drop in the panels' prices.
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change told reporters: "If we left things as they are, the FIT budget would be eaten up entirely, and that would be even worse for those in this sector and those working on other technologies too."
They added that "solar PV can have a strong and vibrant future in the UK and we are proposing changes to ensure a lasting FITs scheme to support that future".
In a further blow, ministers are now planning to introduce the subsidy cuts on 12 December instead of the originally proposed date of April 2012.
North East-company Eaga was bought by Carillion earlier this year in a bid to boost its green credentials. It became the business's energy services division after the £306m acquisition was completed.
