Rural Community Energy Fund

(asked on 21st April 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Rural Community Energy Fund.


Answered by
Greg Hands Portrait
Greg Hands
Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This question was answered on 28th April 2022

The Government recognises that community energy groups have a role to play in the Department’s efforts to decarbonise the economy.

Through the introduction of UK-wide growth funding schemes, such as the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Government is enabling local areas to tackle net zero goals in ways that best suit their needs. The Government encourages community energy groups to work closely with their local authority to support the development of community energy projects within these schemes.

The Government also plans to reintroduce the Community Energy Contact Group to strengthen engagement with the sector.

There have been a range of government initiatives from different Government Departments that have supported the community energy sector since 2015. This includes grant funding through the £15 million Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) from Defra and BEIS, and broader schemes which have been open to community energy groups as well as other organisations, such as the Feed in Tariff scheme, the Towns Fund, and the Community Renewal Fund, where spend is not shown explicitly for community groups.

RCEF projects are currently in the delivery stage, and we expect to review the scheme in due course.

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