Hertfordshire County Council has successfully secured a further £8.5m of funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, managed by Salix Finance, to help fight the climate change emergency in the county.

The county council’s success in securing a second and third application from this scheme brings its total funding to £23.5m. In January it successfully secured £15m of funding from its first application.

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme enables public sector organisations to tackle climate change by delivering capital energy efficiency schemes and heating decarbonisation projects. This funding means the county council can now deliver several sustainability led projects at a number of its sites including its school estate, fire stations, libraries and main office buildings.

Some of the many projects include the installation of solar panels across 128 council owned buildings, the installation of an air source heat pump across our Mundell’s estate and the delivery of improved cavity wall insulation across a further 15 school sites.

In addition, there will be the installation of modern, energy efficient boiler systems at various schools across the county – locations to be confirmed. The funding will also allow for improved building insulation and other building improvement schemes.

Teresa Heritage, Deputy Leader for Hertfordshire County Council said: “This is great news, we’re really pleased with how successful our applications have been in securing £23.5m of funding. This additional funding is another positive step for us in achieving our countywide sustainability goals, enabling us to continue to lead in our efforts to fight climate change as an organisation.

“We have committed, through our recently approved Sustainable Hertfordshire Strategy and Action Plan, that the management of all our operations will have an exemplary sustainability focus.”

This is the first of many projects Hertfordshire County Council plans to deliver over the next year to meet its ambitious goals outlined in its Sustainable Hertfordshire Strategy.

To read the Sustainable Hertfordshire Strategy and Action plan visit: https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/microsites/sustainable-hertfordshire/sustainable-hertfordshire.aspx