Government launches £10m low carbon communities fund

The government has today formally launched a new Low Carbon Communities Challenge that will see up to £10m distributed to 20 innovative community scale projects capable of curbing carbon emissions and promoting behaviour change.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said that it was looking for local authorities, charities and social enterprises to apply for a share of the new fund by proposing a range of low carbon schemes that could then be replicated nationwide.

"We're searching for communities across the country to kick start the low carbon revolution," said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband. "The Challenge is an opportunity for communities to lead the way so that everyone can play their part in tackling climate change and save money on fuel bills."

The successful projects will also be provided with free support from a range of low carbon advisory bodies and consultancies, including The Energy Saving Trust, The Carbon Trust, WRAP and Global Action Plan.

A DECC spokeswoman said that the government was looking for a variety of low carbon projects, ranging from local biomass plants or wind farms to retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency, which could then provide the successful working case studies needed to shape future policies.

She added that business could not apply directly for the funding, but were likely to be heavily involved in the community-scale projects. "The aim is to give the communities complete control over the spending and decision making so we get really good case studies that the government can then act on," she said.

To support the initiative a further £6m fund will be made available to UK research institutions to carry out studies into the success of the various community projects. The government said that the Research Council will shortly be inviting academic proposals that would assess the performance of the various projects and recommend which offer the best returns.