The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and delivery body Salix Finance allocate up to £635m of funding to public sector organisations for renewable energy.
On 2 August 2022 the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and its delivery body Salix Finance, announced that in September 2022 Phase 3b of their Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) is planned to open for grant funding applications .
Phase 3b will allocate up to £635m of funding to public sector organisations, to be spent in financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25. Up to £402m of which shall be allocated for 2023/24 and up to £233m for 2024/25.
What are the Grants for?
The funding is to be allocated to projects which aim to upgrade heating systems in public buildings to those powered by renewable energy. Such systems are often cleaner, cheaper and more efficient and will therefore, it is hoped, help the Government in achieving its aim of cutting emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037.
Applicants may submit multiple applications for separate projects or amalgamate multiple projects into a single application. Such applications may be for either just the first or both of the prescribed financial years.
Further Information
A notable feature in Phase 3b is the introduction of ‘sector soft caps’, which are designed to allocate funding fairly across the public sector, in a manner that reflects the distribution of carbon emissions across the respective sub-sectors of the public sector. Applications will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis, until each sector cap is reached and will close when there are sufficient applications to meet the Phase 3b budget. Applicants can expect to receive the outcome of their applications by the end of January 2023.
The provisional Phase 3b caps (to be confirmed upon the opening of the application window) are:
a. Education – 37% of funding. Education includes but is not limited to state primary schools, state secondary schools and universities and Local Authorities applying on behalf of schools.
b. Health – 28% of funding. Health includes but is not limited to hospitals and health centres.
c. Other – 35% of funding. This includes but is not limited to emergency services, clubs and community centres, law courts and prisons, Ministry of Defence buildings, museums and theatres. Applications which are mixed (e.g. a Local Authority application which covers a school and a leisure centre) will fall under the ‘other’ sector cap.
For more details and key dates see Salix’s webpage: https://www.salixfinance.co.uk/P3BPSDS_milestones
How we can help
Our Public Sector Team deals with the application for and management of grant funding, and as such have the knowledge and experience in dealing with all aspects of grant funding. If you are in need of assistance please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Claire Jones (Legal Director) or Jaden Johnson in the Public Sector Team.
Key Contacts
The content of this article is for general information only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. If you require any further information in relation to this article please contact the author in the first instance. Law covered as at August 2022.