Low Carbon Skills Fund Phase 5

Low Carbon Skills Fund Phase 5

The Government has announced the latest round of grants for the public sector to engage specialist advice to create heat decarbonisation plans through the Low Carbon Skills Fund 5 (LCSF5).

GEP Environmental’s team of experts has helped support many organisations to achieve Low Carbon Skills Fund success. For more information about how our team can support your organisation’s application, get in touch today.

What is the Public Sector Low Carbon Skills Fund Phase 5?

The Public Sector Low Carbon Skills fund is designed to help public sector bodies boost their decarbonisation skills and take their first steps toward net zero carbon. The fund seeks to decarbonise the public sector by focusing on heating. One of the greatest barriers in meeting the UK’s 2050 Net Zero target is the way buildings are heated. Most of the buildings in the public sector are reliant on fossil fuel-based heating, and expert skills are required to identify and plan how these heating systems can be replaced, ideally at the end of their working lives.

A robust heat decarbonisation plan places organisations in good stead when it comes to achieving the next steps of decarbonisation, and the framework will allow organisations to apply for future grant funding or alternative funding sources for even more innovative decarbonisation measures.

What’s new in Phase 5?

Salix has used learning from delivering previous phases of the Low Carbon Skills Fund to drive operational efficiency and deliver more funding to those who need it most. The most important changes for potential applicants to note include:

  • Assessment of applications in random order: in previous phases, applications were assess in the order that they were submitted. To drive efficiency and equity in the funding process, applications will now be reviewed in a random order. The portal will open on 17th April 2024 and close 1st May 2024, after which the applications will be randomised and assessed with Salix’s rigorous assessment process.
  • Application form: all applicants will be required to complete and submit an application form through the application portal. To support this process, a scoring framework will be introduced and all applications will be assessed against the same stringent criteria.
  • End of life requirement: The Phase 5 Low Carbon Skills Fund will see the inclusion of an end-of-life heating system requirement for some of the activities that are being funded by the Low Carbon Skills Fund. This is to prioritise funding later stage project-specific planning for buildings most imminently in need of heating system replacement and therefore support organisations ready to begin capital works. For feasibility stage and design stage activities - feasibility studies, technical site surveys, investment grade audits and detailed designs - the building must be serviced by at least one end-of-life heating system to be eligible. To satisfy this criterion the boiler and/or plant must have either reached the end of its useful life sooner than is typically expected and can be evidenced, or be older than 10 years. Organisations can still include buildings with non-end-of-life boilers when developing activities in the strategy stage; development of a heat decarbonisation strategy, desktop assessments and building audits.
  • Tenancy arrangements: Applicants must either own the building that is the subject of the application or occupy it under a long-term lease arrangement.
  • Single applications: a maximum of one application per organisation is permitted.

Why choose GEP Environmental?

As an experienced project engineering, project management and energy engineering consultancy, GEP Environmental has successfully delivered multiple projects including Heat Decarbonisation Plans (HDPs), energy and decarbonisation surveys and audits, detailed renewable feasibility studies, M&E Condition Assessments, Technical Project Lead and Project Management support across a range of Decarbonisation Energy Performance Contracts along with Measurement & Verification (IPMVP independent verification services). Why choose GEP for your LCSF5 project?

  • Public sector funding specialists: GEP Environmental have experience of supporting many Public Sector Clients through a combination of PSDS Phases 1-3C Capital Grant applications and LCSF Phases 1-4 applications along with other Salix Energy Efficiency Loans Application and Pre-Capital and Grant applications.
  • Demonstrable success with detailed design: we have successfully supported PSDS applications including the latest PSDS 3C applications across 4 Public Sector Clients and have produced over 350 LCSF or direct funded HDP’s with approximately 15% of these being to RIBA Stage 3 design.
  • An experienced project team: our project engineers have supported a wide range of Public Sector clients with PSDS and LCSF projects since 2020 and have been involved as Project Manager/Technical Lead across 12 PSDS funded Capital programs.

GEP are one of only six technical advisors appointed (October 2021) by DESNZ (formally BEIS)/Salix to undertake the technical due diligence of submitted PSDS applications along with evaluating design changes and monitoring and reporting of savings as the PSDS projects progress. This appointment is across a period until September 2025, after which it is to be expected that all projects funded under the recent PSDS3C & forthcoming PSDS4 will be fully evaluated. Our appointment under this framework does provide us with useful insight to the detailed requirements for each iteration of the PSDS funding rounds, and we are able to apply this knowledge when supporting our direct Public Sector clients. Please note that Salix operate a “conflict of interest protocol”, which ensures that the appointed Salix technical advisors cannot carry out PSDS technical due diligence services for a client whose application they have supported.

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