Budget to bring LCF clarity

Chancellor to deliver long awaited roadmap for the levy control framework

The government is expected to set out next steps for the levy control framework (LCF) in today’s Budget, Utility Week has learned.

The department for business, energy and industrial strategy and the Treasury have conducted a joint review of the future of the LCF, which sets annual spending caps on the renewables obligation, feed-in tariffs and contracts for difference costs.

In what is expected to be a “safe” Budget overall with few new spending commitments or tax giveaways, chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond is understood to be preparing to announce the outcome of this work.

Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “This will be welcomed by investors and energy developers who have been waiting for a couple of years now.

Emma Pinchbeck, executive director of RenewableUK, said: “We would like to see more clarity on the pathway to get to subsidy-free renewables, and that’s why getting more clarity on the future of the Levy Control Framework is key. This will help us to build up the British supply chain which is exporting worldwide.”

The Budget is also expected to contain the first details of the consumer green paper, which is widely expected to address utility prices and set the tone for government intervention in markets, including energy, previously described as “dysfunctional” by prime minister Theresa May.