Cheltenham launches grant fund to help businesses cut their energy use

By Nicky Godding

27 October 2023

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Cheltenham town centre

Cheltenham small and medium-sized enterprises can now kickstart their net zero journey with supercharged support and grants up to £10k.

Cheltenham Borough Council (CBC), in partnership with Vision 21, are launching the CheltenhamZero Business Fund - offering grants of up to £10,000 to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for energy efficiency projects. Available for a limited time, the £100k grant pot will be open to applications from yesterday.

Cheltenham received the full funding of £100k from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The applications are open to businesses with a registered premise in Cheltenham, fewer than 500 employees and a turnover below £43million. Grants will be awarded for capital projects delivering energy efficiency improvements and full details can be found on the council website www.cheltenham.gov.uk/chelt-zero-business-fund.

Energy efficiency measures may also help local businesses to reduce their energy bills. Matched funding will be considered favourably but this can include in-kind contribution like staff time.

Cllr Alisha Lewis, cabinet member for climate change at Cheltenham Borough Council, said: “In the next stretch of our crucial decarbonisation efforts, we are delighted to offer a share of the £100k funding pot to local Cheltenham based businesses.

“The CheltenhamZero Business Fund demonstrates the council’s commitment to reducing barriers for businesses. Offering local expertise, support and funding to empower businesses to take action to reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency.”

This funding availability follows on from the success of the CheltenhamZero Community Fund, where £100k of grant funding was made available to local community organisations in 2020 and 2021. This facilitated projects like the installation of a heat pump at Leckhampton Rovers FC.

Local climate charity Vision21 have teamed up with local experts to offer a comprehensive package of pre-application support including a sustainability planning workshop on Thursday 16 November 9.30am to 12.30 noon and advice from local sustainability consultants on 10 November 9.30am to 12.30pm.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.