Carbon Trust wins £1.9m of regional funding

The Carbon Trust has been awarded £1.9 million towards plans to improve energy efficiency within industry by the Regional Growth Fund.

The trust, which helps businesses and public sector organisations to cut their carbon emissions, is one of 50 organisations that have been allocated £450 million of public sector investment.

The Regional Growth Fund is a new government initiative that will allocate £1.4 billion of funding to private bodies and public private partnerships over the next three years. The fund aims to increase job creation and provide support for economic growth throughout England.

Today the department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced first projects successful in their bids to raise funding, including a number of green schemes such as the Carbon Trust's project and energy transmission firm Alstom Grid's smart grid developments.

BIS estimates that this first round of funding will create or safeguard more than 27,000 jobs and will enable firms to leverage a further £2.5 billion of investment.

Benjamin Sykes, director of innovation at the Carbon Trust, confirmed: “As a result of this award we have secured a further £2.1 million of private sector co-funding.”

“The funding will be used to accelerate the uptake of energy efficiency in a range of industrial sectors from dairy and aggregates through to bakery and animal feeds.

“The project is anticipated to generate cost savings of up to £70m annually and 3,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector by 2020.”

Organisations can now apply for the second round of funding and have until 1 July to complete their bid. BIS is particularly encouraging organisations from sectors that have not yet already been awarded funding to apply. For a full list of the first round awards and details of how to apply for funding visit the BIS website.