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New HCA funding for low carbon projects
Published: 2009-09-22 09:09:41
Funding for the second round of the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA’s) low carbon infrastructure initiative has been announced. Totalling £8.8 million, this adds to the first round of £12 million awarded in July. The whole initiative comes from a partnership between the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. It aims to fund infrastructure that links up local low carbon energy plants with both new and existing housing developments.
The seven successful second round bidders are in London (Hackney and Greenwich), Birmingham, Coventry, Leeds, Gosport and South Gloucestershire. The actual work includes laying pipes to housing estates, building biomass CHP energy plants and installing ground source heat pumps. This is part of the government’s “Building Britain’s Future” policy launched in the 2009 budget and, theoretically at least, covers £50 billion of low-carbon investment over the three years to 2011.
Speaking about the second round of the HCA initiative, the housing minister John Healey said: "Homes account for a quarter of carbon emission and by making all new homes zero carbon from 2016 we are already leading the way to much greener housing stock. But we also have to make existing homes greener and this funding will help access to clean energy sources."
This funding, though relatively small, is seen as important by the HCA because it can help de-risk sites by supporting infrastructure costs and effectively front-load the grant contribution for affordable housing to be built by private developers. The 2009 budget included a total of £70 million for decentralised small-scale and community low-carbon energy projects around the country.