More funding to schools, hospitals and public buildings to lower energy use and save on bills, and cut carbon emissions.
Public sector organisations can now bid for a share of £230 million to help make low-carbon energy upgrades to their buildings.
£230 million made available to schools, hospitals, leisure centres and other public buildings in latest round of funding, grants will allow schools, hospitals and other public buildings to install low-carbon heating and energy efficiency measures. More than 1,000 buildings have already received upgrades helping them save thousands of pounds on energy bills.
More schools, hospitals and other public buildings will be able to reduce energy use, save on bills and cut carbon emissions for the long-term through the latest round of funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
From today (Tuesday 10 October), public sector organisations can bid for a cut of £230 million of government funding to support significant low-carbon energy upgrades to their buildings, ranging from heat pumps and solar panels, to new energy efficiency measures such as insulation and low-energy lighting.
The opening of the latest bidding process coincides with the 3-year anniversary of the scheme, which has so far allocated more than £2 billion to almost 1,000 public sector organisations across England, helping them reduce energy bills and carbon emissions in the long term.
Today’s funding marks another step in the government’s pragmatic and proportionate approach to reaching net zero, by scaling-up energy efficiency of buildings across the country and supporting the switch to more low-carbon heating.
The commitment follows significant progress the UK has already made towards reaching net zero – cutting all emissions by 48% between 1990 and 2021, which is faster than any other G7 country. Decarbonising the public sector with low carbon heating and energy efficiency measures is also expected to save the public sector an estimated £650 million per year on average to 2037.
Lord Callanan, Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, said:
“We are a world-leader when it comes to reducing carbon emissions – and for us to reach our goal of net zero by 2050, we want to help public bodies like schools and hospitals to do their bit.
We’ve made fantastic progress so far, helping more than 1,000 schools, hospitals and leisure centres. Today’s funding will now help even more organisations across England bring their bills down, while also cutting their emissions.”
The funding, announced today, has been made available through Phase 3c of the scheme, with organisations able to spend the money allocated in the 2024 to 2025 financial year – on top of further funding for 2025 to 2026.
