Tax break incentive for new power

Tax breaks for solar power in all new homes and wind energy plants will be promised by the Tories today as part of a "blue-green" agenda to outflank Labour on the environment.

Tax breaks for solar power in all new homes and wind energy plants will be promised by the Tories today as part of a "blue-green" agenda to outflank Labour on the environment.

Damian Green, spokesman on environmental affairs, will announce a target of 30 per cent of the UK's energy to come from renewable sources such as wind, solar and wave power by 2030. The target set by the Government for renewable energy is 10 per cent, a figure criticised as failing to give adequate incentives.

Solar power would be encouraged in new homes by so-called "net metering", a US-style policy allowing homeowners to sell back to the national grid any energy they generate themselves.

Mr Green will pledge 100 per cent capital allowances for the first year of new offshore wind projects. The policy would cost the Treasury £50mover three years.

He will also declare the Conservatives' opposition to Labour's climate change levy or energy tax proposed for heavy industry.

"The Labour government has used the environment as a fig leaf to mask a barrage of new taxes, such as their energy tax and fuel taxes. The next Conservative government will show that we can protect the planet without it costing the earth," he will say.