Alert close - icon Fill 1 Copy 10 Untitled-1 tt copy 3 Untitled-1 Untitled-1 tt copy 3 Fill 1 Copy 10 menu Group 3 Group 3 Copy 3 Group 3 Copy Page 1 Group 2 Group 2 Skip to content

Decision details

Approval of Green Entrepreneurs Programme (GEP) - Small Grants Fund Amendment for Decarbonation Support

Decision Maker: Cabinet Member for Clean Growth and Regeneration

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: Yes

Purpose:

To request Cabinet Member approval for the inclusion within the small grant fund to broaden grants for decarbonisation, supporting small business to work towards a zero-carbon future.

An appended report sets out the purpose of the small grants programme and the decarbonation measures the fund will support, approved by the Green Entrepreneurs Fund Programme Board in October 2022, now seeking Cabinet Member approval.

Decision:

That the Cabinet Member:

 

a)   notes the outputs of the review and agrees to amend the small grants criteria to include eligibility for mainstream technologies;

 

b)   agrees to include the requirement to assess wider community benefits as part of the grant process, include monitoring of impacts; and

 

c)    agrees to setting a nominal funding ceiling of £350,000 within the small grants strand of £500,000 for ‘mainstream technologies’ supported by regular monitoring information to the Programme Board to allow assessment of demand and impacts on the wider fund.

Reasons for the decision:

To ensure the Green Entrepreneurs Fund remains relevant and responsive the current challenges being faced by Derbyshire businesses as they move to decarbonise.

 

Alternative options considered:

Option 1: Retain the existing grant criteria (do nothing) and not broaden the eligibility criteria of the small grants fund. This option is not considered appropriate as it will not address the key issue of under-performance in Strand 2 and will not enable businesses to meet their current energy and emissions challenges or help build business resilience.

 

Option 2: Make some amendments to the grant criteria by reducing the minimum threshold for project costs from £25,000 to £15,000, whereby individual small grant awards could be made from £6,000 at a 40% intervention rate. This option would increase the likelihood of some proposals being more eligible but would still not address the fundamental challenges outlined in option 1.

 

Publication date: 18/11/2022

Date of decision: 18/11/2022

Effective from: 26/11/2022

Accompanying Documents: