Decision details

Surrey County Council (SCC) recently ran a grant programme called LoCASE (Low Carbon Across the South and East) to help Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to decarbonise.  It provided a grant towards the cost of a range of energy efficiency, heating and lighting improvements. This grant covered 50% of total costs of decarbonisation.  Between September 2021 and June 2023, the programme funded over 200 businesses and invested £1.2m, which helped to provide a reduction in carbon reductions of 1290 annual tonnes of C02e and annual energy savings of around £890k to businesses.

As LoCASE programme has now finished, Surrey County Council have developed an SME Decarbonisation Loan ‘proof of concept pilot’ programme to test whether providing loans to SMEs can help them to decarbonise.

The loan programme would fund energy efficiency measures including heating, lighting, insulation and second hand electric vehicles which in turn will reduce carbon emissions and provide financial savings to the small and medium sized businesses. 

Decision made:

To award a contract for the SME Decarbonisation Loan Management Programme pilot to Capitalise Business Support Limited Trading as Let’s Do Business Finance.

Reasons for Decision:

The SME Decarbonisation Loan Programme pilot will help businesses to decarbonise and support the County Council’s strategic priority for achieving net zero for the county by 2050. It also supports the Greener Futures Finance Strategy that was approved by SCC Cabinet in July 2023.

The procurement route followed is compliant with the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and Procurement and Contract Standing Orders.

NA.

None.