£2m available for firms to cut bills

GRANTS HELP GREEN ENERGY IMPROVEMENTS

HUNDREDS of small businesses could benefit from a share of a £2 million grant scheme to help them cut their energy bills.

Leicester City Council has secured more than £1.9 million from the European Region Development Fund (ERDF) and launched a new round of its Green Belle scheme.

The scheme offers grants of up to £7,000 to small and medium-sized businesses to help cover the costs of low carbon, energy-efficient improvements to their premises.

Grants are available to support measures such as energy efficient heating, low-energy lighting, insulation, or renewable energy sources, such as solar panels or heat pumps.

Grants will be awarded to cover up to half the costs, to a maximum of £7,000.

To be eligible, applicants must be a small or medium-sized business based in Leicester or Leicestershire.

Councillor Adam Clarke, deputy mayor for environment and transportation, said: “These grants give small and medium-sized businesses the chance to become more energyefficient and save money on their running costs.

“We have ambitious plans to help make Leicester a carbon neutral and climate-adapted city by 2030.

“The Green Belle scheme is a really good way to welcome more firms on board and show them becoming more energy efficient is good for business and for the city.”

In the first phase of the scheme – which launched in 2017 – the city council worked with 93 businesses.

A council spokesman said the scheme is one of several measures and actions resulting from the first Leicester Climate Emergency Strategy.

He said the strategy “sets out an ambitious vision for how the city needs to change to move towards becoming carbon-neutral and adapting to the effects of global heating by 2030, or sooner”.

An accompanying action plan – which will be updated on a yearly basis – sets out an initial programme of more than 120 actions that will support the strategy and help achieve the ambitious carbon savings required.

Free advice is available from the Green Belle team on the range of measures that can help businesses cut the cost of their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint.

For more on the climate emergency strategy, go to: