Buried beneath the headlines of the Autumn Statement the renewables sector will be feeling sore from the announcement from the Chancellor this week that restrictions will be placed in future on access to funding from the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).
The Chancellor announced that companies that benefit substantially from subsidies for the generation of renewable energy will not qualify for these schemes from 6 April 2015.
Shirley Mathieson, Head of Renewables at UK top 20 Chartered Accountants Saffery Champness, says: "Clearly this is a disappointment although the writing had been on the wall with restrictions already in place for companies that receive feed-in tariffs (FITs) for technologies other than hydro and anaerobic schemes, and now these restrictions will be extended to apply to all technologies.
"In mitigation, community energy generation schemes undertaken by qualifying organisations will now be eligible for Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR) when that comes on stream.
"This latest change means however that for those businesses planning a hydro or anaerobic scheme they will now have to act very fast if they wish to take advantage of EIS or SEIS reliefs."
