Fancy £500,000 to spend in your street/village/town?

A new chance to bid to be one of 20 communities to really have a go a targeting CO2 reduction.

2 tranches -

tier 1, to be in a position to spend £500k by April 2010! i.e. existing groups with knowledge of their carbon footprint who want to tackle something a bit bigger than they normally get funding for.

tier 2, to do the same but spend £500k by Arpil 2011. So new groups with a bit less experience.

Not the hugest pot ever, but have you ever tried to get a £500,000 cap-ex project done in 6 months! Me thinks the gov are starting to put cash behind their strategy. I imagine more will come available after the pilot once they get a picture of where spending it makes most sense.

Full details at:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/consumers/lc_communities/lc_communities.aspx

Leader is...

On 28 September 2009 we launched the Low Carbon Communities Challenge, a two-year programme to provide financial and advisory support to 20 ‘test-bed’ communities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that are seeking to cut carbon emissions.

The findings from the Big Energy Shift[external Link] public dialogue suggest that households could benefit significantly from joined-up ‘packages’ of support, delivered locally in the community, to help them reduce home energy consumption and make deep cuts in their carbon emissions. Such packages could include, for example, smart meters, home energy audits, access to local demonstration homes, leadership from local schools, businesses and public buildings, and more hands-on support navigating advice and determining which energy efficiency measures and renewable technologies are right for them.

We believe that this type of integrated approach, involving technological solutions alongside community and household-level behaviour change, and delivered via new collaborations between local public, private and third sector organisations, will be critical to achieving the carbon emission cuts we need. However, as yet there is no blueprint for effective action or clear sense of how much can be achieved through this route – hence the Challenge, which is designed to test the success of different plans.

The Challenge will allow the experiences of people living and working in communities that take part to be shared publicly, along with the quantitative data on carbon and energy savings. The information will be used to offer continuous learning and improvement, and the lessons learned will be made available to other communities across the country. The learning will also inform government's wider delivery plans on energy and climate change.

It's not so bad if you've already been doing the ground work. Our group will be putting in a bid we'd find it quite easy to spend £500k by end of financial year. Not telling you what for though! But thought I should mention it as someone else might have a better idea!

I'm aware of at least 4 other groups in our area, and probably 200 across the country. It will all come down to how you intend to use the money I suppose.