Tag Archives: Funding

Mayoral Funding to Low Carbon Initiatives

September 2011: Details of the Mayor’s recent funding support to London South Bank University’s (LSBU) Centre for Low Carbon Technology which will “enable emerging low carbon technologies to be researched, trialled and demonstrated in a full scale urban environment” and also the Better Buildings Partnership.

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New Low Cost Loans to fund retrofitting of London’s buildings

2 September 2011: The Mayor announced today that “Hundreds of public buildings in London including schools, libraries and hospitals are set to get a green makeover, with low cost loans from a new £100 million fund”. The Mayor has agreed a £50 million contribution from the London Green Fund to set up the new London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF). LEEF will be led by Amber Infrastructure Limited and the press release states that “Amber has already expanded the fund’s value with upfront commitments for £50 million from RBS and the company is expected to leverage in further amounts over the life of the project.”

Further information provided at www.leef.co.uk sets out that eligible projects will aim to deliver:

  • Energy Savings Ratio of at least 20% compared to conditions prior to investment
  • Each £1500 LEEF Investment should achieve a reduction of at least one tonne CO2; and that
  • The pricing of LEEF’s loans will be “dependent on the credit rating of the borrowing entity and the amount and level of security provided; the aim is to be able to structure the transaction so that a highly competitive rate can be offered.”

A list of eligible technologies that qualify for funding are also set out there. A brochure posted at the LEEF website also makes some interesting comparisons to how the fund will operate in comparison to the existing funding made available to public sector organisations through the Carbon Trust’s Salix programme. Further information on RE:FIT can be found here.

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London Misses out on Renewable Heating Grants

21 July 2011: After mentioning yesterday that DECC had not as yet launched their renewable heat grants programme, this morning I see a press release announcing the start of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment’ scheme. However, DECC have now stated that the scheme will be mainly focused on households not heated by mains gas – so the opportunities for Londoners to benefit will be greatly reduced. In short the scheme will provide:

  • £15 million in total to support up to 25,000 installations; and
  • Householders will need to ensure they have basic energy efficiency measures in place before applying

From 1st August, grants for the following technologies will be available:

  • Ground Source Heat Pump – £1250 grant (for homes without mains gas heating)
  • Biomass boiler – £950 grant (for homes without mains gas heating)
  • Air source heat pump – £850 grant (for homes without mains gas heating)
  • Solar thermal hot water panels – £300 grant (available to all households regardless of the type of heating system used)

So Londoners who wish to take advantage of this scheme and install solar thermal panels (that is – if they’re not thinking of  using their roofspace for PVs…) should go to the Energy Saving Trust’s website who will administer the scheme. Further information is also available on the RHPP DECC factsheet here.

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Carbon and Energy Fund

July 2011: The Carbon and Energy Fund is a new £100M+ fund that is the sucessor to the Energy and Sustainability fund. The fund exists to fund and support projects in the NHS that meet a certain level of carbon savings per £1000 of investment required. Five projects worth £23m have signed up to tranche 1. This tranche is full and enters mini-competition in July 2011. The Fund intends to facilitate the delivery of 60 upgrades for NHS Trusts over the next 4 years in a series of tranches – details of the next funding tranche are here.
A number of London-based case studies of energy saving actions previously taken are available including:
Royal Free Hospital, London
Natural History Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum London
Kingston Hospital

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How TIF funding could boost retrofitting in the UK

11 July 2011: The Guardian has published a comment piece today highlighting how “Tax increment financing could be used to fund grants for sustainable improvement to the country’s housing stock“. TIFs provide new borrowing power opportunities for local authorities in England, and was first announced as a Government proposal by the Deputy Prime Minister back in September 2010. The issue of TIFs and business rate retention was also looked at in some detail recently by the City Finance Commission.

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Green Deal boost to retrofit market

7 July 2011: H&V news highlight interesting developments in Birmingham in respsonse to the Government’s Green Deal programme:

“Private finance is set to back the Green Deal market as councils gear up to begin the first stages of multi-billion-pound housing retrofit programmes.

Last week, Construction News reported Birmingham City Council is about to tender for a lead partner for its Green Deal retrofit programme, which could see the council use its borrowing to underpin the initial stages of the programme.

With private finance the scheme could be expanded to retrofit about 200,000 homes, spending around £1 billion by 2026.” Read the full article at the link above.

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Mayor’s responses to London Assembly energy and climate change questions

May 2011: The Mayor’s responses to the London Assembly on energy and climate change questions questions included:

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New Warm Front Funds

14 April 2011: The Government’s insulation and heating improvement fund, the Warm Front Scheme, has begun taking new applications – revised eligibility criteria and the scope of the scheme is available on the following government news release.

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Millions to fund street lighting in Croydon and Lewisham

13 April 2011: £151 million of government funding is to be made available to improve street lighting in Croydon and Lewisham, which, amongst other things, will allow the introduction of more efficient lighting systems. Read more on following government news release.

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London Green Fund Brochure

6 April 2011: London Development Agency (LDA) brochure on the London Green Fund.

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Future of the London Development Agency’s Environment Work

6 April 2011: Transcript of oral evidence given to the London Assembly’s Environment Committee (agenda item 5) by the Mayor’s Advisor on the Environment which provides a useful – and detailed – update on a number of energy efficiency programmes currently being delivered by the LDA including the Green 500, RE:NEW and RE:FIT.

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London Green Fund Brochure released

6 April 2011: The London Green Fund (LGF) is a £100 million fund set up to invest in schemes that will cut London’s carbon emissions. The fund was launched in October 2009 by the Mayor of London and the European Commissioner for Regional Policy – the first JESSICA Holding fund in the UK. It is made up of £50 million from the London ERDF Programme, £32 million from the LDA, and £18 million from the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB). The European Investment Bank manages the London Green Fund on behalf of the LDA and LWARB.The LGF will provide funding for two UDFs that will invest directly in waste and energy efficiency projects. These will be ‘revolving’ investment funds, where monies invested in one project are repaid and then reinvested in other projects. The scope of the LGF may be expanded in future to include support for medium and large scale decentralised energy systems.The manager of the Energy Efficiency UDF is due to be appointed soon and the fund is expected to be up and running by summer 2011. Further information on the London Green Fund here.

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