Businesses and public buildings in the UK will soon receive a share of over half a billion pounds to enable them to decarbonise their operations and cut their energy bills.
The latest phase of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which has funded over 1,000 projects since 2020, will provide £530 million of government investment for energy efficiency upgrades, including heat pumps, solar panels, insulation, and low-energy lighting, in public buildings across the country.
An additional £27.5 million of funding will be provided to industrial operations through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to help hard-to-abate industries begin reducing their carbon emissions.
Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance Lord Callanan said: “From school corridors to the businesses that power up our economy, we want to make sure buildings of all shapes and sizes are supported to deliver net zero.
“By allocating over £557 million today, we are standing steadfast behind our public sector and local businesses, providing the help they need to make the switch to cleaner, homegrown energy.
“This will not only help cut bills in the long term, but ensure we keep reducing our emissions – having already led the world by halving them since 1990.”
Major transformations
Across the UK, the latest round of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme has given major funding injections to various projects at various public institutions.
Some of the biggest grants have gone to NHS Trusts, with South Tees NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust alone receiving a combined sum of over £69 million.
The latter of these received over £21 million to decarbonise three buildings at the Royal United Hospital in Bath through the installation of air source heat pumps, wall, loft and roof insulation, double glazing, LED lighting, building energy management system upgrades and heating pipework improvements.
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust Chief Executive Cara Charles-Barks said: “We are beginning to make great strides to reduce our emissions, through initiatives such as decommissioning our entire nitrous oxide manifold and a sustainable travel plan.
“This grant is therefore invaluable. It will enable us to make these essential changes in the coming years and will have a positive impact on the environment and the experience
of being in hospital. We know that getting this right will be better for the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, the people we work with and the people in our community.”
Other local authorities and government bodies will also see major upgrades funded by the scheme. The London Borough of Hackey has been awarded £12,882,934 for two projects that will install air source and water source heat pumps at 10 schools, two community centres, a leisure centre, a nursing home and the Grade II listed Clissold House, while the Ministry of Justice has been given over £6.7 million to install energy efficiency upgrades at two prisons and a probation centre.
The retrofit challenge
The UK’s vast quantity of old buildings, while undoubtedly charming, presents a massive challenge to a net zero future. The UK has the oldest building stock in Europe, with 5.9 million buildings over a century old and another 4.3 million built over 80 years ago.
The UK’s strong protections around preserving historic buildings can limit the options available regarding decarbonisation technologies. Regulations stipulating that work carried out on listed buildings must be in keeping with the original look and feel of the building can render the installation of certain technologies either prohibitively expensive or simply impossible. While the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund do go some way to help public institutions lower their carbon emissions, many argue that the pace of progress isn’t fast enough.
A 2023 report by Neos Networks noted that CO2 emissions from public buildings in the UK need to be reduced five times faster than the current pace to meet the country’s net zero goals, with 91% of public buildings needing upgrades in the next seven years.
