Leading UK developer Lightsource has announced that as many as 80 jobs at the firm will be “reconsidered” following an internal strategic review.
Following the government’s comprehensive cuts to renewable energy subsidies Lightsource conducted a strategic structural review, which it today confirmed would result in a collective consultation with all 320 full-time staff.
A statement issued by the company this afternoon confirmed that specific roles and responsibilities will be “assessed to reflect a reduced deployment forecast” for solar PV over the next 12 months.
As a result, around 25% of full-time positions – or 80 staff – will have their roles “reconsidered”.
No further details have been announced regarding what departments any potential job losses would originate from, nor how long the employee consultations would take.
Nick Boyle, chief executive at Lightsource, said “short-sighted” policy decisions had left the company in a “most unfortunate situation”.
“As a direct result of these policy changes, we have been forced to take stock, and assess our current internal structure. The Lightsource ethos has always been to deploy in volume, and with that in mind, over the last 12 months, we have continued to build a very capable team after clear encouragement from government on its support for rooftop solar. Our hand is now being forced to re-evaluate our strategy for both roof and ground mount installations, and this therefore directly impacts our team and internal resourcing requirements.
“We remain strongly committed to the solar industry and will continue to innovate through this difficult period. We are still actively progressing with our International, private wire and smart home aspirations. However the short term dictates that this restructuring is essential. Our immediate priority is to ensure that our team are treated fairly and with the utmost respect throughout this restructuring process,” he said this afternoon.
The news follows a string of solar installer insolvencies and job losses in recent weeks as the industry continues to reel from abrupt cuts to both the feed-in tariff and Renewables Obligation schemes.
An impact assessment accompanying the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s consultation response last December stated that it expected as many as 18,700 jobs could be lost from the UK solar industry.
However earlier this year energy minister Andrea Leadsom claimed during the committee on the draft RO closure that it was inaccurate to claim that the thousands of jobs would be lost from the industry.