Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
The Government is to stop funding high-profile green support services the Carbon Trust and the Energy Savings Trust, from next April.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has confirmed it would no longer be providing core funding to the Carbon Trust and the Energy Saving Trust in the results of a review of its delivery programmes, published today. From next April, both organisations will have to bid for contracts to deliver activities to support Government green programmes, DECC said.
DECC said it was cutting the core funding for both delivery bodies because it was having to “prioritise the use of more limited funding” in order to deliver a number of new programmes.
The Energy Saving Trust is to apply for charitable status and operate as a social enterprise, in response to a 50 per cent cut in funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
The organisation, currently a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, will create a new charitable parent company which will oversee a wholly-owned trading subsidiary.
Chief executive Philip Sellwood said that changes to the way the Trust operates have ensured that despite the £16.5m drop in DECC funding, its revenue will still be 75 per cent of previous levels.
“With Green Deal on the horizon, the private sector will have a huge role to play, and we have modified the way we work to reflect this by providing quality assurance for goods, services and installers.”The Carbon Trust is a not-for-profit company, but has also been the main Government-funded body providing specialist support to businesses to cut carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.
In a statement, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne said: “We very much value the work done by the Carbon Trust and Energy Saving Trust in helping to deliver substantial carbon savings. They have both contributed to the Government’s objectives and we expect them to develop their non-Government funded activities still further, and in future compete to provide those new services the Government puts out to tender.”
