Grants for RHI axed
As of 6am on Monday, May 24th, the Government stopped taking fresh applications for grants for renewable heat systems. These were available under the Low Carbon Buildings Programme.
It was always expected that this funding would be removed and Ownergy had been advising customers for some time to move quickly to take advantage of the arrangement whereby the Government was part paying for a system which would then pay the owner a healthy return under the Renewable Heat Incentive. All existing grant offers that have been made, even if not paid, will be honoured by the Government.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change closed the LCBP funding as part of the new Government's £6.3bn departmental savings cuts.
Scott McLean, marketing director of Ownergy, commented: "It is a shame that the funding has closed 10 months before the Renewable Heat Incentive goes live on April 1st 2011 as it was a good incentive to build momentum of installations ahead of that date. However, we always knew this would happen and that there would not be any warning in advance - the same happened to LCBP grants for renewable electricity installations ahead of the Feed-In Tariffs going live.
"This shouldn't be seen as bad news though as the Renewable Heat Incentive was always designed to be incredibly financially attractive without the need for any installation grants. Nor do we see it as any indication that the Renewable Heat Incentive is under threat as this move was always anticipated."
