Match funding opportunities for LCBP2 grants

Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP)

The Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP) is an open grants programme providing £8 million to community-based organisations for the installation of microgeneration technologies such as solar panels or heat pumps.

It is run by the BRE (Building Research Establishment) and is one of the award partners of the Big Lottery Fund and its Changing Spaces programme which is investing £200 million in environmental projects across England. It focuses on three areas – community spaces, local community enterprise and access to the natural environment.

The programme aims to reduce CO2 emissions and increase community awareness of climate change and how changes to our behaviour can reduce it.

Importantly, the CSEP grant is available as a match funding solution for projects awarded a 50% grant through the Low Carbon Buildings Programme Phase 2, meaning that the entire project can be 100% grant funded.

Capital grants up to £50,000 will be awarded on a competitive basis at quarterly selection panel meetings. The deadlines for applications to be received at CSEP can be found on the CSEP website.

More information is available at www.communitysustainable.org.uk.

Dimplex Renewable Energy Finance™

Dimplex’s Renewable Energy Finance scheme has been specifically designed to help not-for-profit organisations including local authorities, schools and housing associations overcome the need for initial capital investment when installing heat pump systems.

The scheme is designed to provide a solution for organisations looking to implement renewable energy technologies but for whom the initial capital outlay could make going ahead with the project an impossibility.

By allowing the investment costs to be re-paid over a period of years and funded through the savings in energy costs the heat pump will provide, the scheme is already proving to be particularly popular in the social housing sector, as housing associations – looking to mitigate the increasing energy costs of properties in off gas areas – are having to move quickly and can often find it difficult to raise the funding needed due to capital budget constraints. The scheme can be applied equally as easily for public building projects or schools.

Benefits of the scheme include:

• Finances match funding for LCBP2 (or other grant schemes).
• Can be used in place of grants to cover entire project cost.
• Project costs covered in full with no up-front capital outlay.
• Investment costs recovered from energy cost savings on an ongoing basis.
• Flexible payment schedules and accounting structure based on client needs.