The aim of the Low Carbon Workspaces project is to reduce the amount of money that businesses have to spend on energy and to help them reduce their environmental impacts. Low Carbon Workspace can help to fund all sorts of improvements – like grants for Solar Shading, LED lighting, glazing, loft and cavity wall insulation and new efficient gas boilers (or combinations of different technologies).
Eligability Criteria
There are several requirements that organisations must meet to be eligible for the grant;
• Must be based in the South East of England – Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Kent and Medway, Oxfordshire, Surrey or Sussex
• Must have been trading for at least a year
• Have a valid EPC or equivalent standard of energy audit
• Cannot be part of a franchise
• Retail, education (including nurseries), primary healthcare (including care homes) and farming businesses are excluded
• Need to own the building or have a long term lease agreement in place
• Need to employ fewer that 250 people and have an annual turnover of under €50 million
• Minimum project value must be £2,600
Grants
Low Carbon Workspaces offer a match-funded grant of up to £5,000; to claim the full £5,000 grant, the total project spend must be £13,000 or more. The minimum grant we can award is £1,000 – meaning a total project spend of £2,600 would be required. As an example, a customer spending £9,000 on LED lighting could receive a grant of £3461.40. The cost of the audit/EPC (say £800) can be included in the total project cost: a total project spend of £9,800, a grant of £3,769.08 could be claimed. The cost of the audit can only be claimed if the project is approved and the applicant undertakes the work agreed.
Application Process
Applicants can visit the website and use the “what could you claim?” button to see the value of the funding available.
Once Low Carbon Workspaces have received the completed application form and the supporting documentation, (EPC, management accounts, quote for the work, energy bills) Low Carbon Workspaces check the application and confirm that everything is correctly filled in.
Low Carbon Workspaces then send the application to a Project Panel – an independent panel who make the final decision regarding the application. This process should take no more than 10 working days. If the panel approve we will inform the applicant of the decision and they will be free to begin the work. Once the work is completed and paid for, evidence of that (a copy of the bank account showing the defrayal of expenditure and a copy of the receipted invoice) has been supplied, they will make the payment of the grant (10-15 working days).