Earlier Tory legislation enables them to do this. Charges are in the £2.5 – £10k range for small renewables projects – even if they don’t go ahead.
My long-running accusation is that the UK government has been operating a “hostile environment” policy for most forms of clean energy, so as to clear the decks for their favoured options of fracked domestic shale gas and nuclear. For these two, all the stops are pulled out: payouts to homeowners to grease the wheels for fracking, preposterous payouts for nuclear to ensure Hinkley Point C goes ahead, and is a the front runner for a new generation of nuclear power plants, etc etc.
Image: ahem, The Sun
