Carillion Energy Services has continued to cut staffing levels in the wake of the government's cuts to the solar feed-in-tariff, with the total number of redundancies now standing at almost 1,200.

The solar installer, based in Wolverhampton, carried out this dramatic restructure following government cuts to subsidies for solar electricity made at the end of last year. Further cuts in solar Feed-in Tariff (FiT) levels are expected to be introduced in July.

A spokesperson for Carillion said: “The energy services business is restructuring in line with changes in market opportunities following the government’s decision to cut the FIT for solar photovoltaic systems, by much more than the industry expected.“

Earlier this week, The Independent newspaper reported that 400 senior figures in the solar industry have signed a letter to the Prime Minister, warning that recent changes to the solar industry and Feed-in Tariff levels could see thousands of job losses.

The paper quotes the letter as saying: “The rate [of installations] has nosedived to such an extent that it would now take another 160 years to deliver the amount of solar energy that the government claims it wants to generate by 2020.”