Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP): call for evidence

Chapter 5 Investing Strategically to Accelerate Delivery

5.1 The Programme for Government 2020 announced a £1.6 billion capital investment over the next Parliament to transform how we will heat our buildings setting us on a clear path to eliminate emissions from heating by 2045. The funding for the successor to LCITP will be met from this budget with the programme becoming the primary mechanism to support deploying low carbon heat at scale, co-ordinating our support for the roll-out of heat networks and heat decarbonisation infrastructure. To achieve this, we must make a financial commitment to the successor programme which matches the ambitions we need it to deliver. Therefore, LCITP and its successor programme will invest £400 million over the next five years in large-scale heat decarbonisation infrastructure.

5.2 Our future support will retain the need for co-funding. The scale of investment required means projects cannot be fully funded by public investment, we must seek to mobilise and work in partnership with the private sector to leverage the scale of investment needed and to develop innovative and new approaches to financing projects.

5.3 We will also seek to drive value for money and financial sustainability by using more diverse funding mechanisms including Green Growth Accelerator, a combination of grant funding, repayable assistance, loan funding and private investment. Intervention rates will also be flexible to match levels of support required, the maturity and risk of technologies and the commercial needs of projects.

5.4 To date the LCITP has launched periodic open and competitive capital calls. In future it is the intention to provide a timeline for the launch of these competitions to provide greater certainty to the sector and to enable clarity on the timelines for preparation of applications.

Questions

12. What types of financial mechanism would help to support low and zero carbon heat projects? Please explain your views.

13. Please provide evidence of how capital funding can be deployed to help attract private sector finance and accelerate the delivery of low carbon heat technologies.

14. Please provide your views on timings of competitive funding rounds.