Government Closes the Low Carbon Buildings Programme to New Applicants
As of yesterday (24th May 2010 – 06:00 am), the government has closed the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) to new applicants.
As part of the government’s commitment to delivering £6bn of departmental spending cuts, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has had to cut £85million of its total expenditure, with the LCPB contributing £3m of those cuts.
The closure will come as a blow to those in the renewable heat industry who had hoped it would remain open until the introduction of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) in April 2011, especially due to the successes of the programme. Approximately 20,000 grants for the capital and installation costs of microgeneration equipment have been provided by the grant. However, the introduction of the new Feed-In-Tariff for renewable electricity at the start of April 2010 means the LCBP is no longer required for electrical microgeneration.
So what support is available until the RHI begins? Well, the closure of the scheme is only to new applicants, which means any applications that were received before the programme closed and currently being considered by the programme contractor will not be affected.
Furthermore, anyone with a valid Grant Offer Letter can still be expected to receive the agreed amount, whilst applications worth £63m for payment in 2010/11 are not affected by the cuts.
The government however, do remain committed to meeting the UK’s share of the EU renewable target and to reducing carbon emissions to meet their 2050 targets.
May 26, 2010 in Green Energy Articles | Permalink | Comment (1)
Great post here.