Public buildings across England to benefit from £533 million decarbonisation funding

Public buildings including hospitals, schools, council offices across England will benefit from a £533 million investment by government to help meet decarbonisation targets and save on energy bills.

In Greater Manchester, £15.5 million of funding will be used for projects on buildings used by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service as well as at the University of Salford, National Football Museum and Manchester University, among others.

The investment will support energy efficiency upgrades, like LED lighting and wall and roof insulation, as well as the installation of low- and zero-carbon heating systems. The improvements are set to save public services £650 million in energy bills over the next 15 years.

Business and Energy Minister Lord Callanan said:

Using cleaner technology to heat our civic buildings is helping to shield public sector organisations from costly fossil fuels, especially at a time of high global prices.

This funding will bring significant savings for taxpayers of well over half a billion pounds each year by making public buildings cheaper to run, heat and cool, whilst supporting economic growth and jobs across the country.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham commented:

“Here in Greater Manchester we know we need to be taking bold and meaningful steps at every level to become carbon neutral by 2038. By moving towards a greener economy we can foster new skills and create thousands of good jobs, powering our recovery from the pandemic and charting a course to a more sustainable, low-carbon future.

“The £100m funding that we’ve been awarded so far is helping our public sector to lead the way in this effort, showing exactly what we can achieve with the right investment and a collaborative approach. We’ve retrofitted more than 130 public buildings and cut more than 8,000 tonnes of harmful emissions, at the same time as supporting and safeguarding almost 2,000 jobs in our local economy.

“We hope this is just the start of a renewed effort to work together at national and local level, helping us to go further and faster in cutting emissions and tackling the climate emergency.”

The latest government investment is the third round of funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which will provide 160 public sector organisations with grants to install 217 new clean heat and energy efficiency projects in their buildings.

Funding is part of the £6.6 billion the Government has committed to investing this parliament to decarbonise buildings, of which over £2 billion is aimed specifically at lower-income households.