Budleigh Past and Present

Benefiting as we do in Budleigh from all that sunshine, you'd think that most houses would take advantage of solar power installations to reduce their energy bills. In fact the town's estate agents will tell you that solar panels are rarely mentioned as a feature in their house sales. That situation is likely to change. James Whiting, whose family moved to the town in 1982 is a regular visitor to Budleigh, and as Managing Director of Friends of the Earth has played a major role since 2008 in persuading the Government to introduce a feed-in tariff (FiT) - or Clean Energy Cashback, as it is known. It means that along with the rest of Europe, the UK will offer financial incentives from April 2010 to those who generate low carbon electricity from renewable energy resources such as small wind turbines and solar panels. James Whiting and Friends of the Earth are among those who feel that Britain needs to go much further in this 'green' direction. The cash payments that wi...