MPs 'can appeal against expenses repayments'

MPs will be allowed to appeal against repaying expenses judged to have been overclaimed, says a Commons committee. Many MPs were angry that an audit of second home claims since 2004 imposed retrospective limits on claims for cleaning and gardening. Gordon Brown was among those asked to repay money. He urged MPs to pay up but others planned to defy the demands. The Members Estimate Committee warned MPs they would dock their pay if they lost appeals and did not repay money. Auditor Sir Thomas Legg sent out letters to MPs with his initial recommendations that they repay money, or provide more details, in October and they have been responding to him. Appeal court judge His final letters to MPs will go out next week, on 7 December. It is up to the members estimate committee to decide what to do about Sir Thomas's final recommendations, expected in early 2010. It has asked former Court of Appeal judge Sir Paul Kennedy - who was also the government's Interception of Communications Commissioner - to consider written submissions by some MPs. It says they must show "cause why there are special reasons in the individual case that it would not be fair and equitable to require repayment either at all, or at the level recommended". The appeals process is expected to be completed by 15 January 2010, after which MPs will be asked to vote on the committee's recommendation that they pay back the sums requested. Retrospective limits Committee member Sir Stuart Bell said: "There can be no back-sliding. Those who do not pay back will have the sums deducted from their salaries or allowances." Sir Thomas was asked by Gordon Brown to review all past claims back to 2004 under the second homes allowance, following the scandal over MPs' expenses. But he chose to impose retrospective limits on claims for cleaning and gardening - which he said should have been set at £2,000 and £1,000 a year respectively. MPs were asked to pay back any claims over those limits. Many MPs were furious, pointing out that they were allowed under the rules at the time but Sir Thomas has said working out exactly what those rules were was "not straightforward". There was also some annoyance that MPs with relatively small claims were being asked to repay money, while those who accrued large sums through selling on their taxpayer-funded second homes had not been. Prime Minister Gordon Brown was asked to repay £12,415, largely for cleaning. He repaid the money immediately and urged other MPs to do the same. Apology to Ken Clarke Conservative leader David Cameron has said all Tory MPs will have to pay up at the end of the review or they will not be able to stand for the party again. The highest sum known to have been requested is £63,250 from Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, who had rented a property from his sister-in-law and claimed it on expenses. He said he had not been told that MPs were banned from renting from relatives in 2006 and the Fees Office knew about the arrangement, but has said he will repay whatever he is asked for at the end of the process. But Sir Thomas has admitted some errors were made. Shadow business secretary Ken Clarke queried a request for a £4,733 and won an apology - the request was reduced to £1,345. Labour MPs John Mann and Michael Clapham also queried smaller sums they were asked to repay and told they owed nothing. A separate review of MPs' expenses recommended that they no longer be allowed to claim for mortgage interest on properties - or services like gardening and cleaning at all. They are under consideration by the new body set up to run MPs' expenses. (my view)- O'Hell no...they SHOULD be imprisoned without jam roll

Solar panel costs 'set to fall'

( The fall in cost is due to the increased lifetime, the institute says)- The cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected according to new research. Tests show that 90% of existing solar panels last for 30 years, instead of the predicted 20 years. According to the independent EU Energy Institute, this brings down the lifetime cost. The institute says the panels are such a good long-term investment that banks should offer mortgages on them like they do on homes. At a conference, the institute forecast that solar panels would be cost-competitive with energy from the grid for half the homes in Europe by 2020 - without a subsidy. Incentive programmes for solar panels in Germany, Italy and Spain have created manufacturing volume that's bringing down costs. Solar panel prices dropped 30% last year alone due to an increase in output and a drop in orders because of the recession. But Heinz Ossenbrink, who works at the institute, said China had underpinned its solar industry with a big solar domestic programme which would keep prices falling. There are large-scale solar plans in the US and India too. Panels had been expected to last for 20 years and price calculations were based on this (with a free energy source, purchase and installation represent almost the entire price of solar power). But Dr Ossenbrink says the institute's laboratory has been subjecting the cells to the sort of accelerated ageing through extremes of heat, cold and humidity that has long been a benchmark for the car industry. Long lifetime It has shown that more than 90% of the panels on the market 10 years ago are capable of still performing well after 30 years of life, albeit with a slight drop in performance. Dr Ossenbrink says 40-year panels will be on the market soon. A key goal for solar is what is known as grid parity. That is the point when it is as cheap for someone to generate power on their homes as it is to buy it from the grid. It varies from country to country depending on electricity prices, but the institute estimates that Italy - which has a combination of sunny weather and relatively high electricity prices - should reach grid parity next year. Half of Europe should be enjoying grid parity by 2020, it estimates. Cloudy northern countries like the UK could wait further, possibly up to 2030. But the day would come when solar panels on homes would be cost-competitive without a subsidy, even in Britain. Dr Ossenbrink says: "Basically everything (in the industry) is bound to grow still further. Growing further means less cost. Less cost means grid parity." "We have been surprised in the past five years at the drop in prices. It's due to good incentive programmes first in Germany then Spain and Italy. That created a kind of a boom that was helping industry to reduce costs and get into profitability. And when an industry is in profit it drives on its own." Owning solar Professor Wim Sinke, from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who leads the solar umbrella group the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform, says the industry has even greater ambitions. "The target of the sector as a whole is to reach grid parity in almost all of Europe over the next 10 years. So by 2020 we should have grid parity in most of Europe," he told BBC News. Key sticking points for domestic solar, he said, would be the lack of flexibility in electricity grids to take in surplus generated energy and difficulties with finance. Dr Ossenbrink said: "What I would like to see is the finance sector saying solar power is a product like financing a house - except they can predict the value of the solar panel much more safely than they can predict the value of the house in a volatile market. "Electricity will never be given away free. Banks should offer mortgages on people's solar panels like they do on homes - the bank should own the panel, then it would transfer to the householder when the loan has been paid off. It would be perfect for life assurances." It will take much longer for solar to match fossil fuel power at the point of generation, the institute says, as wholesale electricity prices are much lower than retail prices. (my view)- WTF...see they screw us every time,one minute they say the panels are going to be cheaper and now they say solar will NEVER be free...you can not charge for what is free...the sun and that crap they are saying about they will not be enough power to match fossil fuel,that's bullshit..there's enough power-solar power-to power each and every single person on this planet...there's enough sunlight that shines on earth every minute to power us ALL for one year and the fossil fuels....ALL within 5 years....even sooner if they make more panels...GOD I'M SO SMART! i need to be president