Carbon Trust Escapes Lightly From UK Budget Cuts

Posted on 25. May, 2010 by Ross in Government Policy, United Kingdom

The Carbon Trust, which helps fund research into low carbon technologies as well as providing interest-free loans to businesses for energy efficiency, has escaped the worst of the UK government’s spending cuts but still will see a reduction in funding.

Since being elected to power this month, the Conservative-Liberal coalition government has been taking a much-needed axe to the public finances in an effort to save money and reduce the national deficit. With the cuts announced today totalling £6.2bn and previous promises to protect front-line services, the expectation was that minor departments such as Liberal MP Chris Huhne’s Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) would take a larger hit than areas such as the education budget.

However, the DECC took a much smaller hit than most, only losing 2.5% of its budget in a strong signal to the country that the government was not just paying lip service to the environment. However, it already operates in quite a lean manner compared to other government departments, partially due to the youth of the recently restructured and rebranded department, so much of the cuts will be born by the DECC’s projects.

The three biggest projects of the DECC are the Carbon Trust, the Energy Saving Trust and the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, and all of which are expected to bear cuts of only 1%. That means that nearly all of the low-carbon R&D funding will remain intact, as will the DECC’s commitment to help businesses lower their energy bills through schemes such as the Carbon Trust’s Big Business Refit – vitally important in helping companies exit the recession early and increase their competitiveness through their own cost-cutting projects such as better insulation and energy-efficient lighting.

Image of Chris Huhne by David Spender @ Flickr

Read more: http://www.energy-savingnews.com/2010/05/carbon-trust-escapes-lightly-from-uk-budget-cuts/#ixzz0raFI50ms
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