Getting ahead to make the grade

The application portal for the latest round of government funding for the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) opens soon. As public sector bodies, schools & colleges can apply for PSDS funding for energy efficiency & heat decarbonisation measures across their built estate.

PSDS has £230 million available for the financial year 2024/2025. And it’s yet another element that will impact on estate managers’ capital expenditure and operational costs on the back of announcements towards the end of the last academic year.

July’s announcement of the PSDS funding round opening this autumn term was made by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) so the stakes are high.

Energy efficiency & decarbonisation are at the heart of many of the statements from the Government. Education property & estate managers and senior management teams - whether in the independent or the public sector - know they need to get themselves up to speed, and fast.

Discount disarray
April’s Energy Discount Scheme announcement rowed back from October 2022’s scheme. The new scheme is only available to schools & colleges paying above £302 per megawatt hour (MWh) for electricity and above £107 MWh for gas. Previously, thresholds were £211 and £75 for electricity & gas, respectively.

The new thresholds see only one in five of the schools the Department for Education (DfE) surveyed a year earlier now eligible for support. As a short term response, operators in the sector could only look to purchase energy at the lowest possible tariff across their estates and, at the same time, reduce energy consumption.

In realising the imperative to look to their built environment - fabric and function, as well as the behaviours of those within it - many are taking external professional property advice to secure the best possible solutions to rising energy costs and to access funds from central pots to enable them.

May saw the outcome of the latest round of Condition Improvement Funding (CIF) announced when education sector applicants found out if they were successful in their bids for government funding for building improvement projects.

Eddisons managed to secure over £20 million of funding from this CIF 2023/2024 pot. Albeit, this was tempered by base rate inflation of 11 per cent more than exceeded by that of construction at nearly 30 per cent in juggling a CIF pot based on 2022 inflation levels.

As building professionals in the education sector, Eddisons has commented on the different challenges schools face.

We’ve called for different funding mechanisms - in addition to CIF & PSDS - and for those government departments charged with funding allocations to collaborate more with education operators & providers to create a strategy that works for the characteristics and condition of our schools estate.

It is only fair to all the staff, pupils & students in our schools that the estate is duly considered for the crucial part it plays in debate about ‘education standards’ and the environmental legacy our children will inherit.

So with schools & colleges back and the PSDS bidding portal opening this term (10 October), we are, figuratively, sharpening our pencils. PSDS won’t suit every building but where it does, it is a step towards Net Zero targets.

Professional building advisors exist to help schools find more cost effective and cohesive ways to spend School Condition Allocation funding, as well as other sources of finance.

They can play their part in minimising the capital costs of building projects while ensuring education providers - whether in the independent or the state sector - make their expected grade.

This article is reproduced by kind permission of Business Weekly in which a version recently appeared as part of the publication’s monthly ‘Scaling up in association with Eddisons’ feature.