The government is making a pot of £230 million immediately available to UK public authorities for heat decarbonisation and better energy efficiency in schools, barracks, leisure centres, court-rooms, libraries and other public buildings, including the NHS.
Bids by council and NHS officials under round 3c of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme opened yesterday, after initial technical problems. The portal will stay open for 10 working days.
Decision-makers at grant administrators Salix Finance note that the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero is keeping the Phase 3c drawdowns open for an extra year, allowing grants for projects approved now to be spent as late as the end of the 2024-25 financial year.
Phase 3c is the final one of three sub-phases of the PSDS’ Phase 3. All told, Phase 3 is designed to make £1.425 billion in grants available to town hall officials and facilities managers of public buildings eager to improve energy efficiency in public buildings.
Among 183 grant winners in the now closed Phase 3b included backers of 231 projects, which together received £603 million. Almost £100 million of that 3b money went to projects in greater London. A further £135 million of phase 3b money was spent in the south east.
Among big recipients in phase 3b included, in the north west region alone, the Ministry of Justice with £15.8 million and Manchester Metropolitan University, with £5.6 million. In the east Midlands, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust received £40 million.
In east Anglia, Phase 3b recipients included Cambridge University with £0.3 million, and one of its colleges, Pembroke, which independently pocketed 0.7 million. Cambridgeshire County Council received £2 million to fund 3 improvement projects.
Among London boroughs last time around on PSDS Phase 3b, the biggest recipients were Hillingdon, receiving £13.8 million, Ealing on £13.7 million and Hackney with £12.6 million. Lambeth got £10.5 million for two projects, and Merton received £3.1 million.
The Met police received £9.5 million and north London’s Whittington NHS Trust £2.5 million.
No non-council, publicly eligible school south of the Thames received a Phase 3b grant. Instead, eight Church of England schools, all north of the river, shared a total of £4.3 million.
For current sub-phase 3c applications, see Salix Finance’s site here.
