23 March 2012 BBC News

The government has lost an appeal over its plan to cut subsidies for solar panels on homes.

The appeal, launched in January, was against a High Court ruling that blocked government plans to halve the payments made to households with solar panels.The government says these feed-in tariffs are at an unsustainably high level.

It would have hit customers who installed panels after 12 December.Under the feed-in tariffs programme, people in Britain with solar panels are paid for the electricity they generate.

The new tariff of 21p per kilowatt-hour, down from the current 43p, had been expected to come into effect from 1 April, but in October the government said it would be paid to anyone who installed their solar panels after 12 December.

The government announced a consultation on the proposals which closed on 23 December.

The High Court ruled that changing the tariffs before the end of an official consultation period was "legally flawed". 

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