Funding opportunities

Read more about the environment-related funding opportunities available to housing associations including grants from Europe.

Current and forthcoming funding opportunities

There are also European funding opportunities available.

If you are aware of other funding opportunities aimed at helping housing associations achieve higher environmental standards, please contact us so we can let our members know.

CERT Funding

What is CERT?

The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) - came into force on the 1 April 2008 and will run until 2011. The programme sets an obligation on energy suppliers, with 50,000 or more domestic customers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, by promoting energy efficiency and micro renewables to domestic energy users.

The Government has set a CERT target of 154 million tonnes (lifetime) of CO2 – this target is divided between the obligated suppliers according to the number of domestic customers they supply electricity and gas to. The Government estimates the new obligation will stimulate around £2.8 billion investment by energy suppliers in carbon reduction measures.

In September 2008 the Government announced plans to legislate to require energy companies and generators to provide an additional £910 million towards the National Home Energy Saving Programme – it is expected that £560 million of this additional funding will be added to the existing CERT scheme – this equates to a 20% increase in the CERT target placed on obligated suppliers.

CERT replaces the old Energy Efficiency Commitment 2005-2008 (EEC2) programme which ended 31 March 2008 – The CERT target is equivalent to double the old EEC2 target.

CERT is a carbon dioxide target rather than an energy target – this allows for suppliers to promote a wider range of initiatives.

What Measures Can CERT Fund?

Under CERT, measures can be provided to any domestic household in Great Britain that is heated by gas, electricity, coal, oil or LPG. Eligible measures include:

  • Wall cavity and loft insulation
  • Lighting
  • Heating (excluding standard boiler replacements)
  • Appliances
  • Innovative measures including micro-generation, biomass community heating etc

Ofgem have found that the majority of cardon reduction savings under the CERT scheme, since it began in April, have come from insulation and lighting measures. Heating schemes account for a very small proportion of the savings achieved so far.

Who can CERT funding help?

Energy suppliers have a Priority Group obligation to meet under CERT – this equates to 40% of the individual suppliers overall contribution. The Priority Group includes those aged 70 and over and low income households (those in receipt of relevant benefits / tax credits)

Suppliers have some flexibility on how they reach their 40% Priority Group obligation and overall target. For example, they can direct activity at those in the priority group most likely to be in hard to treat homes – by promoting ground source heat pumps and solid wall insultation they can achieve up to 5% of their overall CERT obligation via this route and receive an uplift on the savings made.

Innovative Projects

Under CERT innovative actions can count towards 6% of the suppliers obligation or 8% were at least 2% micro-generation is delivered. Innovative actions include:

Those which aim to transform the market: those items not already covered by the programme with an aim of getting these approaches mainstreatmed - an uplift of 50 per cent additional energy savings is available to obligated suppliers on market transformation actions which include micro-generation

Demonstration projects: a proportion of suppliers obligation can be met through carrying out demonstration projects, to trial new types of measures or to assess customer reactions to information or measures

How can housing associations access CERT funds?

CERT obligated suppliers can work with Social Housing Providers to deliver energy efficiency measures to households within the social housing sector. For the purpose of CERT the term “social housing providers (SHP)” refers to borough councils, city councils, housing associations and registered social landlords.

  • Read the National Housing Federation's Get Grant Funding leaflet about CERT funding for housing associations (PDF document, 578KB, opens in new window)

The obligated suppliers provide the funding for the installation or distribution of measures. Obligated suppliers are not limited to offering measures to their own consumers - they can partner with other organisations for the distribution of measures or to encourage the uptake of measures. Ofgem must approve schemes where a CERT obligated supplier partners with a SHP.

To obtain funds under CERT housing providers should contact an obligated supplier. At present these are:

  • British Gas
  • EDF Energy
  • Npower
  • Powergen
  • Scottish and Southern Energy
  • Scottish Power

Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) funding

The Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) is a key initiative announced as part of the Governments Home Energy Saving Programme. CESP represents £350 million of funding to target households across Great Britain to improve energy efficiency standards and reduce fuel bills.

CESP has been designed to promote a 'whole house' approach and to treat as many properties as possible in defined areas. CESP will be delivered through the development of community based partnerships involving local authorities. It is estimated that around 100 schemes will be funded over the course of the programme.

CESP represents a statutory obligation on the largest gas and electricity suppliers, in a similar way to the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT), and for the first time electricity generators to deliver energy saving measures to domestic consumers in Great Britain.

One of the key aims of CESP is to target areas of low income. These areas have been identified using the Income Domain of the Indicies of Multiple Deprevation (IMD). Those areas which are ranked in the lowest 10 per cent in England and 15 per cent in Wales and Scotland will qualify for CESP funding.

In order for a project to be eligible under CESP it must be in an area which has been ranked in the lowest 10 per cent in England or 15 per cent in Wales and Scotland using the Income Domain of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation.

Details of the eligible areas can be found on the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

CESP seeks to promote the measures which give households the biggest fuel bill and carbon savings. The homes which do benefit, will gain significant reductions in energy demand, carbon dioxide emissions and running costs.

The measures which the Government proposes should be available under CESP are:

  • Insulation (external solid wall, internal solid wall, cavity wall and loft insulation)
  • Fuel switch (to gas).
  • Connection to a district heating scheme.
  • Ground source heat pumps.
  • Air source heat pumps.
  • Micro-generation (PV, Solar Thermal, microCHP, biomass boiler, micro wind, micro hydro).
  • Heating controls.
  • Replacing old boilers (G rated) with high efficiency models.
  • Installing gas central heating in homes without central heating.
  • Home energy audits.

CESP will run from October 2009 to December 2012

For further details for applying for CESP funding please refer to the energy suppliers directly. Contact details for the CESP obligated energy suppliers can be found here.

Technology Strategy Board

The government funded Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has released details of two forthcoming competitions for funding.

Building Performance Evaluation

The Technology Strategy Board has committed up to £8m to fund the costs of building performance evaluation studies on domestic and non-domestic buildings.

They will be funding individual companies and other organisations responsible for buildings for the total cost of evaluating the performance of case study buildings they design, build, own and/or operate. This will help builders and developers to deliver more efficient, better performing buildings.

Funding will be provided in tranches over two years.

The next close dates are: 11 May 2011, 14 September 2011, 18 January 2012, domestic projects only 23 May

You can view the current call at the Technology Strategy Board website.

  • Back to the top
  • Share this