Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director for Finances and Customer Services.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet: -

1.    Approves the use of grant funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, if successful, and a contribution from the existing Council capital decarbonisation to deliver the proposed works to the Council’s operational property, as set out at paragraph 2.4 of this report.

2.    Delegates authority to the Assistant Director of Financial Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Jobs and Local Economy to agree Air Source Heat connection contracts at each of the buildings as set out in paragraph 2.4 of this report.

Consideration was given to the report which summarised the proposed approach to improving the energy efficiency and decarbonisation of 8 Council buildings. This included works to install a low carbon heat source utilising funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) and the allocated Council Decarbonisation Capital budget.

The Council declared a Climate Emergency in October 2019 and a Climate Emergency Action Plan had been established. The policy and technological context of net zero was rapidly changing, and delivery of an annual action plan allowed opportunities to be leveraged before they were missed. The Government had invested funding (the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS)) to assist with the decarbonisation of public buildings, and this report had been brought forward in order to seek approval to proposals which utilises the PSDS funding that would be invested in decarbonisation measures within Government allocated spending timeframes.

A significant challenge in delivering the Council’s Climate Change Action Plan was the reduction in carbon emissions from the Council buildings that were a product of current gas energy supply. In order to consider how it might tackle this challenge, the Council had approved, as part of the Budget and Council Tax Report 2022/23, a capital investment to begin to decarbonise its buildings. This capital investment was used as a match funding requirement to enable the Council to secure external PSDS funding. The Council proposed to explore opportunities to replace the gas boilers within a number of the existing operational buildings.

A summary of the decarbonisation interactions and calculated/estimated data was at Appendix 1 ‘PSDS Phase 3C Works’. The buildings identified for the funding included:

·        Kimberworth Place.

·        Matrix Dinnington Business Centre.

·        Swinton Civic Hall.

·        Oaks Lane Depot.

·        Boston Castle.

·        Hellaby Depot – Denby.

·        Hellaby Depot – Sandbeck.

·        Century 1 Business Centre.

Decarbonisation site surveys had been carried out at each site listed above to identify decarbonisation measures, calculate energy/carbon savings, potential savings and estimated project costs. The reports had been used as evidence to support PSDS applications for each building.

The proposed works and low carbon heating system would significantly reduce the Council’s overall carbon impact through the improvements set out in the table at paragraph 2.4 of the report.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1.    Approves the use of grant funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, if successful, and a contribution from the existing Council capital decarbonisation to deliver the proposed works to the Council’s operational property, as set out at paragraph 2.4 of this report.

2.     Delegates authority to the Assistant Director of Financial Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Jobs and Local Economy to agree Air Source Heat connection contracts at each of the buildings as set out in paragraph 2.4 of this report.