A £3.5 billion government fund that paid for energy efficiency work at public buildings across the country – including three in Stroud District – has been axed as part of Labour’s spending review.
The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funded the installation of air source heat pumps, when the old gas boilers needed replacing in 2023 at the Council’s Active Lifestyles leisure centre and Museum in the Park in Stratford Park, Stroud and at the Active Lifestyles Pulse centre in Dursley (formerly known as The Pulse).
The cutting-edge green technology extracts heat from the outside air and uses it to heat the building (including recycled heat from the swimming pools and changing rooms at the leisure centres). Additional rooftop solar panels help reduce the electricity usage.
The upgrades, which have made these buildings significantly more energy efficient, enabled Stroud District Council to meet the requirement of the then government to decarbonise all public buildings by 2035.
Thanks to a grant of £4.69million secured by the council from this energy efficiency fund, the council only had to contribute £700,000 towards the work.
Cllr Chloe Turner, Leader of SDC’s Green group, said: “I’m grateful that Stroud District Council officers were able to secure such a huge grant while the money was available, which has enabled us to modernise our heating systems and reduce our environmental impact in our most energy-intensive buildings. But this fund was a vital source of local government funding for climate action across the country, and culling it with no suggestion of replacement is an extremely frustrating decision from a government that likes to call itself ‘the greenest ever’.”
Projects that have already been awarded money will go ahead but there will be no further money available. Cllr Turner commented: “Many councils will have assumed that there would be a furtherfunding round – so this disappointing news has significant implications for low carbon and energy efficiency projects around the country. It will stop councils investing in modern, efficient, environmentally efficient systems for their high-energy buildings and could put net zero targets into question.”
She added: “The government claims it remains committed to building on the existing Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and is ‘looking at ways to incentivise the public sector as a whole to take steps to decarbonise’. But this seems meaningless, when the vital funding has been withdrawn.”
The PSDS was launched in 2020 to support public sector organisations in England to install low carbon heating and energy efficiency measures in their buildings, such as leisure centres and hospitals. These measures helped councils and other organisations to reduce their carbon emissions and their energy bills.
Pictured is Cllr Chloe Turner next to the air source heat pumps at the Active Lifestyles leisure centre in Stratford Park, Stroud, which were largely paid for by the now-axed government fund.
Background notes
The work at the three SDC buildings, funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, was delivered by Salix Finance and SDC and carried out by Stonehouse-based Cotswold Energy Group.
The council’s Ebley Mill HQ and Brimscombe Port Mill have both been heated by water source heat pumps since 2022.
An air source heat pump system is estimated to last for at least 20 years and these three installations will reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 14,652 tonnes over that time.