London businesses offered £10m for clean boiler upgrades

Small businesses in London can apply for funding to switch to ‘cleaner’ heating systems, as part of an incentive scheme announced this week (30 July) by City Hall.

The £10 million Cleaner Heat Cashback scheme will offer SMEs up to 40% of the cost to replace an existing gas, oil LPG boiler, which has been running for at least ten years.

Small and medium sized businesses in London are being invited to bid for funding to replace old, inefficient boilers

Replacement systems will be required to be at least 90% efficient gas or LPG boilers, connect to a heat network or use renewable technologies such as solar thermal, air or ground source heat pumps. They will also need to lower than 40mg/kWh of NOx.

According to City Hall, commercial gas consumption is currently responsible for around 7% of London’s NOx emissions, a proportion that will increase as emissions from transport improves.

Air quality

Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for Environment & Energy, said: “There are thousands of small businesses in London who have older boilers and this hugely innovative scheme not only helps them to save money, but it also reduces carbon emissions and improves the capital’s air quality.

“Businesses could save hundreds of pounds a year on energy bills by switching from an older, inefficient boiler or heating system — and this is exactly the kind of initiative that will help us achieve the Mayor’s ambition of making London a zero-carbon city by 2050.

EST chief executive Philip Sellwood, who is backing the Cleaner Heat Cashback scheme

“Tackling London’s filthy air is one of the Mayor’s top priorities and this is just the latest in a package of measures that he has introduced to improve the quality of the air we breathe.”

The Cleaner Heat Cashback scheme is being delivered in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust.

Commenting on the initiative, Philip Sellwood, chief executive of the Trust, said: “We are delighted to be supporting the Mayor of London to deliver this ground-breaking scheme. It will help smaller businesses across London to benefit from energy efficiency which in turn will enhance air quality across the city. We hope that other cities across the UK follow the Mayor’s lead and provide similar schemes.”