Important update: 5 February 2025
The grant fund is currently closed for new expressions of interest. We are in the process of awarding funds to successful applicants that submitted a qualifying expression of interest and a full application by 31 December 2024.
It is highly likely that the vast majority of the available fund will be awarded to full applications received by 31 December 2024.
If you are interested in the background to the fund, see details on this page.
Grant funding scheme
In autumn 2024 we invited local community groups and parish councils to apply for grant funding to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their operations or in their local community.
This is a 100% grant fund (no match funding required) for measures such as insulation and solar panels, low carbon transport or perhaps even installing a 'green roof'.
Only local community groups can apply, and funding must be used on buildings or land open to the public. We anticipate most of the funding will be used to improve the energy efficiency of a local village hall or other buildings that local community groups use.
Full details, terms and conditions and key dates are set out on this page.
Potential applicants
Applicants must be one of the following:
- a parish or town council in East Cambridgeshire
- a voluntary, community or social enterprise sector organisation, with the applicable asset to be improved being located in East Cambridgeshire
- other public sector bodies applying on behalf of an East Cambridgeshire community
Funded projects
The project must deliver at least one of the following:
- tackle energy use and/or support energy efficiency or energy generation retrofit to a community building; or
- enabling access to public transport or access to local services through low carbon transport; or
- nature-based solutions to tackle overheating of community buildings
Funding available
A total of £150,000 is available for distribution as grants from January 2025. It is capital funding, which means that an asset must be created as a consequence of the project. It cannot be used for general day to day running costs or maintenance. The project to be funded must complete all works by February 2026.
The minimum single grant award is £5,000, and the maximum is £30,000.
We are grateful for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority providing the base funding to enable us to run this scheme.
Further details
For further details on the grant scheme, including examples of projects that could be funded and what would be excluded, please see the Grant Information Guidance note.
When to apply
We assessed expressions of interest on a first come first served basis and send a full application form to you as soon as possible after we have approved your expression of interest.
You then had until 31 December 2024 to submit your full application. All applications received by 31 December 2024 will then be assessed in early January 2025, and funding awarded to successful projects. If any funding remained after this process, we said we will consider all applications received by 31 January 2025 in early February.
Documents available
- Grant information guidance
- Expression of Interest form
Please direct all queries to NetZeroVillages@eastcambs.gov.uk
(Please note: due to the terms and conditions of the fund, funding is not available to improve assets in the urban area of Ely or Soham, because such areas have access to alternative funding. However, villages within the parishes of Ely and Soham do qualify)