NHS must act now to beat deadline for £46m NEEF fund for LED lighting

Lighting and energy efficiency solutions business Energys Group is encouraging NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts to act now in order to take advantage of an additional £46m of funding available for LED lighting upgrades and installations.

The deadline for applications is 30th November.

The funding has been announced by NHS Improvement. It is designed to inject £46m of Public Dividend Capital (PDC) to the NHS Energy Efficiency Fund (NEEF) in order to drive direct energy efficiency in the NHS.

LED lighting will provide better quality lighting for both patients and staff, as well as reducing maintenance and energy costs, and cutting carbon.

Kevin Cox, Managing Director at Energys Group said: “We are urging Estate Managers across the NHS to move swiftly to take advantage of it this funding stream. The clock is ticking – and there are less than two weeks to go.

“This £46m fund will help NHS Trusts to reduce carbon and energy bills as well as deliver a cut to maintenance costs. This frees up much-needed funds which can be put directly back into front line services.”

LED Lighting Framework Agreements

As timescales for applying for and using the funds are very tight, Energys Group is urging Trusts to take advantage of one of the existing LED Lighting Framework Agreements which give Trusts access to pre-qualified organisations, thereby ensuring both an efficient and cost-effective delivery.

Energys Group has recently been approved by the Essentia Framework (for NHS LED lighting) and is also an approved supplier under the YPO Framework. Both frameworks provide a free service to NHS Trusts to support the entire process from bidding for the Grant monies, through tendering the work and delivery of the solution.

Applications for NEEF should be submitted through the NHS Improvement Estates and Facilities Collaboration Hub. However, for an initial energy audit or advice on LED upgrades, NHS estates teams can contact Energys Group direct.

The deadline for applications is 12pm on 30th November.

With dark nights upon us, what’s the cool news in UK energy efficiency?

UK energy efficiency

Budget focus on business energy

The Chancellor didn’t mention energy efficiency in his actual speech, but behind the scenes there’s evidently been some considerable focus.

Among this year’s Red Book measures are an Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and a new Business Energy Efficiency Scheme.

‘As part of the Industrial Strategy, the government will establish an Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, backed by up to £315 million of investment, to support businesses with high energy use to transition to a low carbon future and to cut their bills through increased energy efficiency,’ read the proposals.

Further; the government will issue a call for evidence on introducing a new Business Energy Efficiency Scheme, focused on smaller businesses.

Over time, this scheme will reduce business energy bills and carbon emissions. The call for evidence will seek views on a range of possible delivery options.

Plainly this is all good news for the low carbon transformation. That said, there have been a number of measures aimed at building efficiency in recent years, and a number of funds, but once announced many seem slow to actually make it out of the starting blocks.

“We welcome any added focus on energy efficiency across UK business,” comments Kevin Cox, Managing Director, Energys.

“It is important that once announced, measures don’t linger on the backburner. We need them to actually kick in and catalyse sustainable change.”

The Chancellor also promised UK PLC will continue to pay for its carbon emissions if a no deal Brexit occurs, through a new carbon emissions tax.

Take VAT off energy efficiency

Also this month, Energy UK asked the government to remove VAT from energy bills and energy efficiency measures after Brexit.

The trade body is also calling on the government to launch a new National Energy Efficiency Programme.

It says there has been a 53 per cent fall from £6.8 billion to £3.2 billion in annual energy efficiency investment and an 80 per cent reduction in improvement measures between 2012 and 2015 from 1.74 million to 340,000.

Chief Executive Lawrence Slade said: “We are calling on the chancellor to help energy customers with measures which will help reduce their bills and ensure that the continuing drive to reduce emissions across the whole economy comes at the least cost to households and businesses.

“Almost 80 per cent of the cost of an average energy bill is outside suppliers’ direct control and with wholesale prices continuing to rise significantly, a National Energy Efficiency Programme would be the most effective way of keeping bills down in the face of such increases.”

Energy plans ‘not enough’

Finally this month, National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) chair Sir John Armitt has told The Telegraph the government’s £300m investment in low carbon heating and its energy efficiency plans are “not enough” to cut carbon emissions fast enough to meet the UK’s tougher climate targets.

“Improving insulation of buildings could have a drastic impact on emissions; we need to invest now to find the best approaches,” he added.

Advisers have called for over £3.8bn of spending before 2030 on upgrading Britain’s drafty housing stock and developing new low carbon heating systems.

“Energy efficiency is always the finest investment option; the money you don’t spend on energy saved is by far the greatest metric for benefit,” comments Kevin Cox.

We hoped you enjoyed this article? Check out more of our energy policy posts here. Please drop us a line if you’d like to chat about any of the issues and themes we’ve covered.