North Yorkshire Council
Executive Member for Culture, Arts
and Housing
14 June 2023
Request to accept funding for Local
Energy Advice Demonstrator Pilot Programme
Report of the Corporate Director
Community Development
1.0 PURPOSE
OF REPORT
1.1
To recommend that the Executive
Member for Culture, Arts and Housing following consultation with
the Corporate Director of Community Development, the Corporate
Director - Resources and the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and
Democratic Services) authorises the acceptance of the grant of
£910,000, subject to:
a)
formal approval that the match
funding identified to support this project, from the UK Shared
Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) Decarbonising Communities and Businesses
stream, can be allocated to this project; and
b)
Assistant Chief Executive
Legal and Democratic Services and Corporate Director of Resources
approval of the terms and conditions of the funding agreement (at
the time of writing, draft Terms and Conditions have not been
received).
2.0
SUMMARY
2.1
The project provides an opportunity to secure funding for elements
of a longer-term strategically important project – ‘One
Stop Shop for Energy Efficiency’ tackling issues of fuel
poverty and carbon emissions from the domestic housing sector, and
supply chains and skills in the construction sector. The Local
Energy Advice Demonstrator fund, from the Department for Energy
Security and Net Zero (DESNeZ), provides funding for 22 months of
revenue support (totalling approximately £1.5m) to deliver a
pilot project across North Yorkshire.
2.2 The main
challenges with the project’s design and delivery are linked
to the short government-set timescales. However the officers
involved with the project are experienced in delivering for DESNeZ
within time-pressured projects and are confident in being able to
design and deliver a scalable, coherent and impactful multi-partner
programme of work.
3.0
BACKGROUND
3.1
The background on the funding
opportunity, contribution to regional priorities and related
background research that has informed the application made was laid
out in the report that requested permission to apply –
“Request to bid for Local Energy Advice Demonstrator Pilot
Programme”, made by decision maker Executive Member for
Managing our Environment on 13 April 2023.
4.0 PROPOSED
LOCAL ENERGY ADVICE DEMONSTRATOR PROGRAMME
4.1 The
programme aims to develop a sustainable business model to provide
detailed domestic energy efficiency advice. All advice will be from
qualified advisors and, due to the funded pilot activity, will be
provided free of charge. It will provide evidence towards
developing national programmes for energy advice. It is structured
around 4 work packages (WPs), which broadly align with stages of
the customer journey through the one-stop-shop:
·
Recruitment and
education
·
In-house advice to
design
·
Client management and
Quality Assurance
·
Supply chain
strengthening
4.2 Due to the
pilot nature of the programme, the activities with each of these
WPs will be applied at a range of pilot neighbourhoods, which have
been identified using the aforementioned data and aligning the
attributes of the priority areas to the requirements of the fund
(hard to treat and/or hard to reach).
4.3
The delivery of the programme will
be completed by a consortium of partners, with project management
initially provided by the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise
Partnership (Y&NY LEP), as requested by NYC, as the project
comes during a time of significant change for the Council. This
will be reviewed in line with the new North Yorkshire Council and
the move to a Mayoral Combined Authority. Procurement will be
required for all parts of the programme, but we are confident that
potential suppliers are engaged and willing to support, evidenced
by the work done so far on the one-stop-shop. Due to tight
timescales, procurement has been engaged to inform programme
development, building in sufficient time to the work plan to
deliver the appropriate procurement exercises. A consortium
agreement and project management team will be developed upon final
confirmation of the funding (both grant and match from UK SPF, see
4.4 & 4.5). Appropriate officer time has been costed into the
bid, including project management capacity.
4.4
On 21 April 2023, NYC submitted an
application for £1,189,300 grant funding from the Local Energy
Advice Demonstrators fund. The total project value was
£1,289,300 with £100,000 match from the UK SPF
Decarbonising communities and businesses stream prior to bid
submission (subject to formal approval via the Business and Low
Carbon Thematic Group and Local Partnership Group).
4.5
On 11 May 2023, the funder requested
that the NYC-led project was redrafted in line with receiving a
potential grant totalling a maximum of £910,000. The bid was
reduced slightly in scope (removing one of the focal
neighbourhoods), and increased levels of match funding have been
identified from UK SPF Decarbonising Communities and Businesses
stream. The evaluation budget has also been reduced, in line with
the revised information on the free availability of some evaluation
tools and datasets.
4.6
On 26 May 2023, an offer of funding
for the revised £910,000 was made by the funder. However,
public release of this information has been embargoed until some
point in July 2023 (date as yet unknown), hence the confidentiality
of this report.
4.7
Due to the potential tight timelines
between access to grant Terms and Conditions (as yet not provided
by funder) and expected grant agreement signing (initially expected
for 5th June 2023, new timeline as yet unknown), this
report is unable to ask for the final acceptance, as at the time of
writing:
·
The use of the match
funding has not been approved. This is considered low risk as the
funding is already secured and allocated to the decarbonisation
stream of UKSPF and the requirement for support for households
outlined in the UKSPF prospectus, and the project will support the
delivery of the priority around supporting building retrofit and
combatting fuel poverty.
·
The Terms and
Conditions of the grant have not yet been received for review and
agreement by legal and financial service colleagues.
4.7
The revised application (submitted
to the Hub on 17 May 2023) has included notification to the Hub
that the original grant agreement signing date of 5th
June 2023 will not be possible due to the timeline for securing the
additional SPF match, and for sufficient time for internal review
and sign-off procedures, with a grant agreement date projected for
early July 2023 instead.
5.0
CONTRIBUTION TO COUNCIL PRIORITIES
5.1 The
Council has declared a Climate Emergency and pledged to play its
part in tackling the causes and impacts of climate
change.
5.2 The NYC CCS
delivers the following specific Council Plan ambitions:
·
Place and Environment:
o
A clean, environmentally sustainable
and attractive place to live, work and visit
o
Communities are supported and work
together to improve their local area
o
Good quality, affordable and
sustainable housing that meets the needs of our
communities
·
Economy
o
Economically sustainable growth that
enables people and places to prosper
·
Health and Wellbeing
o
People are supported to have a good
quality of life and enjoy active and healthy lifestyles
o
Reduced variations in health through
tackling the root causes of inequality
·
People
o
In times of hardship, support is
provided to those that need it most
5.3
Greenhouse gas emissions from the domestic sector in North
Yorkshire are 19% of the total carbon emissions in the region. The
project directly contributes to the North Yorkshire Council Climate
Change Strategy, the Consultation Draft. The Draft document
includes:
·
Support home and
property owners (including landlords) to retrofit properties.
Working with partners to develop and deliver a York and North
Yorkshire Retrofit Strategy to improve access to advice and
finance
·
Increase renewable and
low carbon energy capacity at differing scales such as on
individual buildings, carparks and harbours and at large scales
such as solar parks.
·
Support community
energy projects
·
Encouraging everyone
to reduce carbon emissions
·
Embed climate
adaptation in retrofit activity and infrastructure maintenance
programmes
6.0
ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED
6.1 As an
alternative to accepting the funding we could instead decide not to
accept the grant for piloting a part of the one-stop-shop service
and pursue the full rollout at a later date. However, although the
model aims for the full service to be self-sustaining within 3
years, the seed funding for up-front costs would need to be sought
via a grant or via corporate resources at the Council.
6.2
One alternative source of funding
for the service could be via the York & North Yorkshire Mayoral
Combined Authority. However, competition for
‘gainshare’ will be high across a wide range of
priorities, and it may be easier to make the case for resources if
a successful fully-funded trial could be used to evidence any
further required investment for the wider rollout beyond pilot
neighbourhoods.
6.3 It is
considered preferable to deliver this programme of energy
efficiency advice as early as possible to support residents through
the cost of living crisis and in order to take action on the
Climate Emergency declaration.
7.0
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
7.1
The revised project, as per the
North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub’s (the Hub) request,
totals revenue funding of £1,201,050 (£909,161 LEAD grant
plus £291,889 UK SPF NY Decarbonising Communities and
Businesses) for a 22-month period from grant offer which is
expected to be 5 June 2023, therefore covering financial years
2023/24 and 2024/25. There is no requirement for match funding for
this application from core NYC budgets. Financial Services support
will be required to support the management of quarterly claims in
arrears to the NEY Net Zero Hub, and to ensure NYC financial
procedures are followed.
7.2
Financial risks are set out in section 11 below.
7.3
A review of Terms & Conditions
(not available at the time of writing) will be carried out by legal
and finance prior to acceptance of the funding. Any final decision
to accept the funding would also need to be following confirmation
of allocation of £291,889 Shared Prosperity Funding required
to deliver this project.
8.0 LEGAL
IMPLICATIONS
8.1
Acceptance of the funding will
require NYC to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding or other
formal grant agreement. Any legal agreement required to be signed
will be reviewed by Legal Services and if any of the terms and
conditions present unacceptable risk for the Council then the grant
offer would be declined.
8.2
Any
expenditure of the grant monies shall be spent in accordance with
the Council’s Procurement and Contract Procedure Rules, and
where relevant the Public Contracts Regulations
2015.
9.0
EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
9.1 An
equalities screening assessment has been undertaken and is attached
at Appendix B. No equalities issues are raised by the decision to
accept the funding for this programme and it is concluded that a
full Equalities Impact Assessment is not required.
10.0 CLIMATE CHANGE
IMPLICATIONS
10.1 A
climate change impact assessment is attached at Appendix A. The bid
will support NYC draft climate change ambitions as outlined in 5
above.
11.0 RISK MANAGEMENT
IMPLICATIONS
11.1 This project carries moderate risk, with
challenging timelines coupled with a new area of work for the
council. The risks identified include:
a.
Recruitment of
additional capacity to undertake the project management and
delivery roles (fixed-term roles linked to project lifetime for
project manager and communications officer). It is not expected
that the posts can be recruited to ahead of the grant kick-off
(expected July 2023) but the bid to the Hub outlined timelines for
recruitment starting June and resulting in posts filled by
September. NYC/Y&NY LEP resources are already being utilised to
ensure mobilisation can take place within these timescales, and the
NEY Hub has been notified of the potential delay to grant agreement
signing due to the need to sign-off further SPF match.
b.
Procurement – it
is anticipated that commissioning and procurement of subcontractors
will be required to deliver each work package. The bid document has
been built around soft-market testing quotes to ensure it is
appropriate for the volume of work requested.
c.
Capacity – the
fund will provide funding for a project manager to lead this
project. However, additional capacity of a steering team will be
required to support this work and ensure that the outcomes are met,
and the skills are embedded within the Council and partners. The
NYC Housing Retrofit Board will support this wider capacity,
embedding the programme alongside other high-profile projects such
as Home Upgrade Grants, and streamlining decision-making. Grant
funding can cover existing or new posts although provision of the
energy efficiency advice must be provided by trained and accredited
individuals. The Corporate Director of Community Development will
decide on the project management delivery capacity. Training
budgets are included to ensure this is .
d.
Financial – The
grant covers 76% of costs and it is expected that the claims will
be made quarterly in arrears – however this has not been
confirmed by the programme administrators (Tees Valley Combined
Authority, on behalf of the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub).
Costs will be monitored and managed with monthly claims from
delivery partners and robust tracking of spend against delivery
timelines by the PM. Any cost overruns will be managed through
careful monitoring. Numbers of interventions have been modelled in
the bid (e.g. numbers of retrofit plans drafted) but this can be
scaled should cost per unit change. Additionally, formal approval
of £291,889 from UK SPF Decarbonising Communities and
Businesses stream must be secured prior to signing of grant
agreements, via NYC’s UK SPF governance procedures. This is
expected to delay the project start date from the funder’s
initial request of 5 June 2023 by approximately 1 month (early July
2023).
e.
Reputational –
The project will seek to increase the provision of energy
efficiency advice for residents throughout North Yorkshire and
support innovation for the Council to support its decarbonisation
ambitions. It will support residents with cost of living issues and
fuel poverty. The funding will only be available for 22 months, at
which point the pilot areas are expected to have a model for
financial independence – although this will be built into the
project’s design, there is a reputational risk should the
self-sustaining model prove ineffective and the service have to
close down after pilot stage. As the fund will be claimed in
arrears, unspent funding will likely be returned to DESNeZ from the
Hub – as yet there are no contract Terms and Conditions to
review and confirm this. The self-sustaining model (in development
in the current one-stop-shop research project) will be built on
fees for homeowners (which are free in the funded grant period) and
percentage referral fees from contractors upon completion of
retrofit activity, which are being set in collaboration with
contractors to ensure they are suitable for the vehicle’s
sustainability and palatable to industry.
12.0 HUMAN RESOURCES
IMPLICATIONS
12.1 Human
Resources support will be required in the recruitment of a project
manager immediately upon capacity decision (outlined 11.1 c). There
is dedicated support at the Y&NY LEP to provide interim support
prior to the PM being in post and from the NYC Climate Change
Officers, mitigating risk.
13.0 COMMUNITY SAFETY
IMPLICATIONS
13.1 The
proposed project involves people contracted through the Council
entering resident’s homes. The programme guidance requires
all people entering homes and providing one-to-one advice to have a
valid DBS certificate to ensure safety of residents. The project
manager will ensure all delivery partners demonstrate compliance to
this requirement, and there is funding set aside to pay for
certification in the bid.
14.0
REASONS FOR
RECOMMENDATIONS
14.1 The Local
Energy Advice Demonstrator Pilot Programme provides NYC and
partners with a great opportunity to take forward an area of work
which would not otherwise have resource attached to it.
|
15.0
|
RECOMMENDATION(S)
|
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15.1
|
That the
Executive Member for Culture, Arts and Housing following
consultation with the Corporate Director of Community Development,
the Corporate Director - Resources and the Assistant Chief
Executive (Legal and Democratic Services) authorises
the acceptance of up to £910,000 of revenue funding, covering
financial years 2023/24 and 2024/35, from the North East and
Yorkshire Net Zero Hub’s Local Energy Advice Demonstrator
Pilot Programme subject to:
a.
formal approval that
the match funding identified to support this project, from the UK
SPF Decarbonising Communities and Businesses stream, can be
allocated to this project;
b.
the Assistant Chief
Executive Legal and Democratic Services and Corporate Director of
Resources approval that the terms and conditions of the funding
agreement are acceptable.
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APPENDICES:
Appendix A – Climate Change
Impact Assessment
Appendix B – Initial equality impact assessment screening
form
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS:
Background
papers relied upon in the preparation of this report:
Local Energy Advice Demonstrator -
North East & Yorkshire Net Zero Hub
(neynetzerohub.com)
York & North Yorkshire
Routemap to Carbon Negative
York & North Yorkshire Local
Area Energy Plans
Nic Harne
Corporate Director – Community
Development
County Hall
Northallerton
17 May 2023
Report Author – Katie Privett, York and
North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Enterprise
Partnership Officer, and Jos Holmes, NYC Climate Change Policy
Officer
Presenter of Report – Katie Privett,
York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Enterprise
Partnership Officer
