Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has defended the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s green policies by saying that after only a year in government, they have in fact made considerable progress.

Mr Huhne said: “There’s no back-tracking at all, we have the legislation for the Green Deal which will be a pioneering program creating jobs all across the UK; we’ve got the Green Investment Bank underway and that will begin operation in 2012, we’ve made extra support for renewables, such as the Renewable heat Incentive- I think most fair-minded people would say for only a year in Government, that’s already substantial progress.”

The Energy Secretary said the adjustment to the Feed-in Tariff was a necessary adjustment to avoid a boom and bust scenario.

He criticised the previous government for not anticipating the large take up of the FiT: “If what was coming through the planning system had been allowed to go on, it would have gobbled up all the money that had been set aside to encourage the smaller scale solar voltaics and indeed, other renewables.”

The FiT was subject to a fast track review earlier this year which reduces subsidies for solar PV larger than 50 kilowatts and all stand-alone PV installation.