Renew On Line (UK) 32

Extracts from the July-August 2001 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

£50m Community Heating Programme

In yet another pre-election allocation, the DETR announced a £50m boost for community heating and for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) which will, it says, ‘help 100,000 people on low incomes heat their homes’ and will also benefit hospitals, schools and universities. In addition it would help meet the target of installing at least 10,000 Megawatts of CHP capacity by 2010, thereby also helping to cut green house gas emissions. And it would contribute to work on local Agenda 21 and Neighbourhood Renewal.

Launching the programme John Prescott said: "Community Energy is an exciting new £50m venture which demonstrates how we can improve people’s quality of life while working to protect the environment and tackle climate change. With Community Energy, people on low incomes living in social housing will benefit from low cost heat and electricity. And the initiative, which will not only link several buildings to one heat source, but use the highly fuel-efficient technology of Combined Heat and Power, will extend more widely - hospitals, schools and other community facilities will also be covered".

The programme will be run in phases - £20m in 2002/03, and £30m in 2003/04 and the DETR noted, builds on Public-Private Partnerships and Private Finance Initiatives. It added ‘The £50 million package should stimulate further private sector investment of around £200 million, enabling obsolete infrastructure and equipment - some of which is up to 50 years old - to be replaced with the most up-to-date technology’.