Westmorland & Furness Green Enterprise Hub Grant Scheme – UK

This grant scheme supports Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Westmorland & Furness area to undertake carbon reduction measures by providing a revenue or capital grant. The magnitude of carbon savings will be prioritised in the grant assessment process. Help is available to estimate the carbon savings associated with your proposed activity.

Funding Information

• There is a total of £215,000 available up to 31st January 2025.
• This is a discretionary grant scheme, with grants up to £10,000, subject to availability.
• For grants of up to £3,000 no match is required.
• Grants of more than £3,000 and up to £10,000 require a 30% match contribution, with 70% contribution from UK SPF.
• Grants are available to support the installation or implementation of carbon reduction practices, which include activities and/or purchase of equipment and capital works that will support the decarbonisation of your organisation.
• The scope can include the reduction in greenhouse gases from any source, including, but not limited to energy use, transport, resource consumption and the embodied carbon in goods and materials, and waste.
• Activity must be completed and funds claimed by 31st December 2024 for year 2.

Supported Activities

• The following types of activities will be supported:
  • Training and coaching (excluding that which is already subsidised through this programme)
  • Accreditations
  • Research and development
  • Consultancy advice, audits and surveys
• The following types of equipment and capital work will be supported:
  • Improvements to the thermal fabric of buildings (for example, additional insulation and window thermal upgrades such as double, triple or secondary glazing)
  • Transition from fossil-fuelled to electrical heating and fixed equipment
  • Energy efficiency upgrades to lighting and electrical heating and fixed equipment
  • Improvements to building energy controls
  • Upgrades to electrical infrastructure and metering, including electricity grid upgrade and connection fees associated with installing low carbon technology (such as EV charge points)
  • Equipment to support reduction in resource consumption
  • Equipment to support waste reduction

Eligibility Criteria

• This programme of support is designed for micro, small and medium sized organisations, that are based in Westmorland and Furness, and that are either commercial or social enterprises.
• In detail, this means:
  • Location: the organisation must either have their business address in Westmorland and Furness, or must be delivering a substantial service in Westmorland and Furness. To receive a capital grant, the site of the investment must be within Westmorland and Furness.
  • Size: small and medium sized businesses (SMEs).
  • Nature of the organisation: organisations need to be ‘enterprises’ which are ‘engaged in economic activity’, but this can be on a not-for-profit basis.
  • To help define this, they can support businesses that:
    • Provide easily identifiable and saleable goods or services to customers or clients. Saleable goods or services could include those that are provided below market rate, if the organisation is able to do so through the use of other income, donations or volunteer time.
    • Have at least one member of staff earning an income from the organisation. The member of staff can be either the business owners or an employee.
    • Have a bank account.
    • Are formally constituted, as one of the following:
      • Limited companies
      • Business partnerships
      • Sole traders
      • Charitable companies
      • Charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs)
      • Charitable trusts
      • Co-operatives
      • Community interest companies (CICs).
  • Sectors: they can support private and charitable sector organisations in any industry. They cannot support public sector organisations, for example, state schools.
  • Specific exclusions do apply:
    • Faith, political or campaign-based organisations are ineligible. The exception here is if the organisation includes an enterprise ‘arm’, which is accessible to customers or clients of any faith or political standpoint. In these circumstances, support can be provided in relation to that enterprise part of the organisation only.
    • Housing providers. Bed and breakfasts and holiday-let businesses are eligible for support, provided that the accommodation is bookable for most of the year, i.e. operating as a business for most of the year. They acknowledge that the accommodation might also be the home of the business owner and that demand for accommodation is seasonal.

For more information, visit Cumbria Chamber of Commerce.