North East Lincs to slash emissions from a swathe of buildings

North East Lincolnshire Council has secured £4,821,879 of funding from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to help deliver carbon emission reductions in nine of its buildings, through heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency improvements.

The council will provide match funding for the project of £657,529. 

The council adopted its Net Zero Carbon Roadmap in 2021, which set out their ambition to achieve it carbon neutrality by 2040. In December 2022 a motion was approved by Full Council to accelerate that, with an aim to achieving net zero by the Council and its assets by 2030.

The works will involve replacing ageing, fossil-fuel reliant systems with low carbon alternative technologies, as well as building fabric improvements and energy efficiency measures where appropriate for the buildings. The grant funding includes design, engineering, construction, and project management costs.

A survey of Council property identified priority buildings for prioritisation based on where the highest tCO2e would be saved. The buildings include a swimming pool in Immingham, Grimsby Leisure Centre, a variety of office buildings and Grimsby Crematorium.

The council has also embarked on an ambitious property rationalisation programme which will deliver efficiency savings, reduce the carbon footprint, support new ways of working, drive footfall and generate capital receipts which can be applied to support the wider transformation programme.

Cllr Phillip Jackson, Leader of the Council, said: ‘We’ve set an ambitious target to be a carbon-neutral council by 2030. Meeting this target is one of the biggest projects the Council has undertaken and is vital in mitigating the damage done by polluting carbon emissions.

‘This grant funding will enable us to take a big leap forward in reducing the energy consumption in our buildings, which benefits the environment and lowers running costs, and ultimately helps keep council tax down.

‘One of the biggest contributors to our carbon emissions is the energy we use to heat our buildings.

‘We can reduce these emissions by increasing the energy-efficiency of our buildings, using our buildings to generate power and by switching to renewable sources of energy.

‘The works we are carrying out now are a further step in our mission to becoming carbon Net Zero and follow other energy-efficiency improvements completed in recent years, such as converting our street lights to low-energy LED bulbs, upgrading our buildings and introducing more electric vehicles in our fleet.’