MPs push for football fan power

29 July 2011 Last updated at 14:49 GMT Newcastle United fans celebrate, but should they be given a chance to own the club? MPs have given football fans fresh hope they could get an opportunity to own the clubs they support.

The Commons has been looking at the way football is run in England.

It has produced a series of recommendations, including improvements to the management of the Football Association. (Some would say it could hardly get any worse given its recent problems).

It also wants to see football clubs monitored through a licensing system to prevent them getting into financial trouble.

But the committee has also examined the involvement of supporters in their clubs.

It came across some good examples of consultation even at Premier League level.

Sunderland get particular praise in the report for involving their fans, and the report calls for other clubs to follow their example. Arsenal and Liverpool are also praised.

But the committee also looked at how supporters might be able to gain a stake in their clubs.

The MPs say it is currently far too difficult for fans to try and take over teams.

Funding access

Supporters' trusts have been formed by groups of fans, but according to the committee they face too many hurdles when it comes to raising money.

Sunderland's Chairman Niall Quinn cheers on the team with its American owner Ellis Short

The report calls for a change in the law to give trusts special status.

The MPs say they could also be set up as Community Interest Companies or social enterprises. That could give them more access to funding.

The committee also wants to see legislation to protect groups of supporters who already have minority stakes in their clubs. At the moment, a buyer can force them to sell their shares.

And fans could also get a better chance to take over their club if it goes bust.

The report suggests supporters' trusts should be given an opportunity to match any bid for an insolvent club before it is sold.

Club ownership

Some of those changes would please the Newcastle United Supporters' Trust.

We need a reformed FA to oversee and underpin a rigorous and consistent club licensing system and robust rules on club ownership, which should be transparent to supporters”

End Quote John Whittingdale MP Chair, Culture, Media and Sport Committee

It campaigned before last year's election for changes in the law. The Trust has been keen to take over ownership of the club from Mike Ashley but has found it tough to mount a realistic bid.

But it seems unlikely the report will suddenly see fans take over England's biggest clubs.

In evidence to the committee, the Sports Minister Hugh Robertson makes it clear that there will be a limit to fan power.

He doubted there was any room for supporters to own the biggest clubs - potentially ruling out the idea of a trust running a Newcastle or Manchester United.

Hugh Robertson also said there was little scope to offer tax breaks to trusts in the current climate.

And the committee does not see an end to foreign ownership of English clubs.

Instead it wants to see the "fit and proper person" test applied more rigorously to potential owners of any nationality.

It also hopes foreign owners make an effort to appreciate the culture and heritage of the clubs they take over.

Football heritage

Sunderland's American owner Ellis Short gets a mention. The club chairman Niall Quinn says he had spoken to Short about the need to understand the emotion surrounding the club.

Culture, Media and Sport Committee chair John Whittingdale believes the FA have to tackle problems in English football

But Niall Quinn says the Sunderland model works well because Ellis Short has fully bought into the club's history and potential, and wanted "to go with the fans on an adventure".

John Whittingdale, the committee chair, said: "Significant changes need to be made to the way the game is run to secure the future of England's unique football heritage, and the economic and community benefits it provides.

"The FA is the organisation for the job, but it has some way to go getting its own house in order before it can tackle the problems in the English game, and address the future.

"We need a reformed FA to oversee and underpin a rigorous and consistent club licensing system and robust rules on club ownership, which should be transparent to supporters."

So some progress, but it still seems unlikely we'll see an English Barcelona any time soon.

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Cornish solar power under threat?

15 June 2011 Last updated at 11:04 GMT Solar panels can harness the Cornish sun Any hopes Cornwall Council or the solar power industry might have been entertaining of a reprieve in the government's review of the Feed-in Tariff have now been dashed.

The Feed-in Tariff (or FiT) is a government subsidy for solar power devised by the last Labour government and then inherited by the coalition.

To the relief of potential beneficiaries the coalition decided to run with it.

Cornwall Council apparently presides over the sunniest corner of Britain (a claim met with incredulity, I suspect, from people like me who live in the delectable - but undeniably damp - duchy).

Following the government's commitment to the FiT, it lost no time in forecasting (and beginning to facilitate) a ?1bn "solar gold rush" from Penzance to Pensilva.

Solar power enthusiasts were urged to get in quickly and make firm plans to harness the Cornish sun before the FiT deadline.

Benefit handsomely

Planning permissions were granted - and everything seemed to be ticking along splendidly - when the government decided to give itself planning permission to move the goal posts for FiT applications.

Ministers said they were alarmed by the rapid uptake of the scheme by large commercial concerns - "subsidy farmers" rather than solar farmers, according to Energy Secretary Chris Huhne.

Chris Huhne: alarmed by the rapid uptake of the scheme by "subsidy farmers"

The government insists that this was an unintended consequence - though I've yet to find a Labour politician who agrees with that - of a scheme targeting small-scale domestic generation.

It is, however, undeniable that the original rules put in place by Labour clearly allowed large commercial operators to benefit handsomely.

Hence the ambitious plans hatched by the same large commercial operators and Cornwall Council - and hence the government's haste to frustrate those plans.

Ministers proposed restricting the higher level of FiT support to solar installations generating 50kW or less - and launched a consultation on that proposal.

When I spoke to Chris Huhne earlier this year it was clear that, consultation or no consultation, large-scale solar farms would not be cashing in on the scale originally permitted (though, allegedly, not envisaged). He was adamant that he simply wasn't having it.

However, as I reported at the time, he did seem to be leaving the door open to reviewing the 50kW threshold. Critics claimed this was so low that it would exclude relatively small community ventures as well as the big commercial outfits the government obviously had in its sights.

Such critics might also have had their hopes raised by the government's track record on consultations. The coalition has form when it comes to either abandoning policies altogether (sale of public forests) or agreeing to amendments (it's indicated this will happen on coastguard reform). This week look no further than the NHS.

'Very challenging'

Very little has changed as a result of the consultation”

End Quote Cheryl Hiles Director of Sustainable Energy Delivery, Regen SW

On the Feed-in Tariff, though, it's stuck to its guns.

As Cheryl Hiles, Director of Sustainable Energy Delivery at Regen SW, ruefully observed:

"Very little has changed as a result of the consultation.

"Government remains adamant that the intended beneficiaries of the FiT should be individuals, householders, organisations, businesses and communities, but apart from preventing large scale solar developments, have done little to demonstrate this.

"The changes to the PV tariff will not affect individual consumers' installations, but larger community scale schemes are unlikely to go ahead now with the current level of support offered by the FiT.

"It is however not just the impact of the FiT review, but also the withdrawal of the EIS relief for community companies and the reduction in capital allowances that all conspire together to make community and business scale projects very challenging."

Sudden halt?

Cornwall Council is very disappointed with the decision”

End Quote Councillor Julian German Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Cornwall Council

And the brakes have clearly been put on the Cornish solar power gold rush.

Councilllor Julian German, Cabinet Member for Climate Change at Cornwall Council, said the county had the most to lose from the government's decision:

"With the fact that we have the highest levels of solar irradiation on the mainland UK there has been a huge amount of investment opportunity from solar park development.

"There are two key reasons why Cornwall Council is very disappointed with the decision.

"Firstly - in developing its own 5MW solar park the council has been nationally acknowledged as demonstrating great leadership following the government's own guidance that local authorities can generate electricity from renewables to create an income to support its community activities.

"As the result of the Fast Track Review we now have to reassess the position as to whether or not we can continue with the construction of the Kernow Solar Park which is due for construction in the autumn.

"Secondly - the Council has also been leading best practice by working with developers to ensure that communities and local businesses would receive direct economic benefits from the construction of commercial solar parks.

"Now only small amounts are being built in a rush to be operational before the 1st August deadline."

Legal challenge

There's also the question of those who had already invested in solar schemes - in the reasonable expectation of benefiting from the Feed-in Tariff - before the government decided to change the rules.

If they do manage to recoup any of their losses it's now clear it won't be with any help from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

End of story? Well, not if this group of companies in exactly that position succeed in their legal challenge to the government's entire review of the Feed-in Tariff.

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