Eligible costs
Community groups can apply for a share of the available £150,000 funding pot, up to £40,000. Any unspent funding this funding round will be rolled over to the next round.
Applications for large grants are expected to be used only for large capital expenses i.e., feasibility work should have been completed for your project. See the figure below for an example of expected costs at different stages of a decarbonisation project.
The following costs are eligible under HCEF:
- Capital costs (purchasing materials, technologies, and equipment to deliver or monitor the project)
- Core costs (e.g. consulting fees, feasibility studies, staff and office costs to support the project but not for general staff/office costs)
- £500 to cover feasibility costs for successful applicants
- Project and promotional costs solely related to the project (e.g. promotional material to engage residents)
- Project management costs.
Unfortunately, we are not able to fund:
- Sole individuals – if you are an individual, you could link up with a local organisation to discuss your idea
- Day to day organisational overheads (including rent, bills, administration or any staff costs unrelated to the project)
- Fully funded posts, we are only able to fund fees for consultancy work or temporary, partial staff costs to deliver your project
- Educational activities or workshops which do not support the delivery of a capital project. This is due to carbon offset restrictions which require the majority of funding to go towards projects that result in measurable carbon savings.
- Nature-based solutions, such as tree-planting. Whilst we acknowledge the many benefits of absorbing carbon emissions through planting trees, the difficulty in measuring carbon savings as a long-term storage solution means that this cannot be prioritised.
- Domestic energy saving improvements – unless you are a constituted residents/tenants association with permission in principle from your landlord(s). Your project should benefit and engage the community.
