HCA announces first round of funding from Low Carbon Infrastructure Initiative

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has announced the first round of funding for successful schemes involved in its Low Carbon Infrastructure Initiative.

The initiative, a partnership with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Communities and Local Government (CLG), will provide funding for schemes across the country to benefit from new and existing low carbon energy plants by creating the infrastructure needed to link them up.

The successful bidders are:

• Cranbrook New Community, Exeter – £2.5m to provide biomass CHP for the first phase of development of 2,900 houses.
• The Southside Regeneration Area, Nottingham – £1.5m to connect scheme to energy station providing heat from waste heat.
• Anaerobic Digester Gas Injection, Milton Keynes – £1.5m to provide a new biomethane plant sited with the city’s planned anaerobic digestion plant that will power households with green energy by injecting into the regional gas network.
• Mayflower Theatre and Gantry development, Southampton – £0.65m to connect scheme to Southampton’s deep geothermal district heating network.
• Woolston Riverside Growth point, Southampton – £2.5m to create two energy centres on site with transmission pipework that will be connected to the existing deep geothermal system.
• Cambridge & Crescent Towers, Birmingham – £1.5m to channel waste heat from neighbouring convention centre to heat homes that are currently heated by expensive electric heating.
• Riverside Dene Biomass District Heating Scheme, Newcastle – £1.7m to connect ten council owned tower blocks to biomass district heating plant, supporting households that experience high levels of fuel poverty.

Sir Bob Kerslake (pictured), chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, said: "These schemes use clean energy technologies that will be used innovatively to make a difference to people’s lives. The successful local partners have come together with energy providers to make low carbon energy work for communities on the ground, whether in new housing schemes or on existing housing estates."

"We are not simply looking to reduce carbon emissions but also for ways of reducing people’s fuel bills and to reduce dependency on expensive fossil fuels. The lessons we will learn from seeing these ground-breaking schemes in action will make it easier to achieve the zero carbon homes by 2016 and to upgrade the environmental performance of the existing housing stock."

The second tranche of schemes to receive funding will be announced in August.

Housing Minister John Healey said: “If Britain is going to be successful and safe from climate change in the future, we have to change the way we live now. More than a quarter of carbon emissions come from houses.

"That is why I have announced a package of green measures that will drive forward our ambitious zero carbon targets. This includes the locations of the first four eco-towns and new standards for zero carbon homes that means all new homes from 2016 will be cleaner, greener and cheaper to run. And I am also releasing the first tranche of money for areas to pioneer more responsible energy solutions."

"We are leading the way on the world stage with these developments and these innovative projects will be playing their part in full."

Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt said: "Heating our homes is responsible for almost half of the UK’s carbon emissions, so we need to look at ways of keeping warm in a more environmentally friendly way.

"These seven winning projects will now be able to build heating systems that use fuels like biomass or turn waste into heat which don’t produce as much carbon, which means they’ll be better for the planet and have the potential to significantly reduce heating bills."

This funding is part of a package of measures announced by Housing Minister John Healey including tougher new energy standards for all new homes from 2016 to be zero carbon and a review to combine the Government’s climate change and renewable energy planning policy statements. Mr Healey also announced the green light to the first four eco-towns in the country.

With more than a quarter of Britain’s carbon emissions produced from homes, the announcements are a major step towards meeting the Government’s green policy pledges and Britain’s transition to a low carbon country.