Plans announced last month to cut the Solar Feed-in Tariff (FiT) rates from August rather than July are generally being welcomed by businesses.

However, reactions to further plans which will see the tariff decrease every three months, with pauses if the market slows down, have not been so positive.

The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) announced it would cut solar subsidies by nearly 25% from 1 August and that there would be further cuts every three months if deployment remained on target.

Climate change minister Greg Barker said that the new regulations will put the FITs scheme on a "more predictable, certain and sustainable footing for householders, businesses and the solar industry".

The new tariff for small domestic solar installation will be 16p KWH, down from 21p.

All tariffs will continue to be index-linked in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) and the export tariff will be increased from 3.2p to 4.5p.

According to DECC, the new tariffs should continue to give a return on investment of over 6% for most typical installations, and up to 8% for the larger bands.

The Solar Trade Association said that it broadly welcomed many of the government's decisions on the FiTs scheme and the inclusion of solar in DECC's updated Renewables Roadmap.