Public Funding for City Leap Energy Partnership Limited

Bristol people and businesses are very concerned about climate change. They want to be part of the solution, see changes which benefit their communities in other ways and have affordable, accessible ways to make a difference. Many businesses and six communities have already created their own Climate Action Plans to describe the changes they want to make happen with 12 more community plans in the pipeline. We want to find a way to achieve these business and community climate goals faster ensuring they are joined-up with the changes we need to make as a whole city. Investment in new low carbon technology is needed to replace the fossil fuel technology which we rely on for heat, power and getting around. Some of these investments will generate a return for investors. We want to demonstrate a way to bring more investment into climate change projects in a way that matches what people want in their home or their area. There are many businesses already supplying climate change solutions in the city, such as builders insulating homes and heat pump installers replacing fossil-fuelled gas boilers. We want to help these businesses to grow to meet the need for climate action and create jobs and training to suit all levels of skills and experience. Bristol Mission Net Zero Pathfinder Demonstrator is an ambitious project to show how people can achieve their climate goals, obtain investment in new ways and grow related businesses to benefit the whole community. The project applies a process for achieving these goals in three Bristol communities, two of which are already discussing climate action. It would create a community climate investment plan for each and search for the investment to make the projects a reality. Plus, create a matching regional climate investment plan and a package of skills support so businesses have capacity to do the work that communities want to see. The lead applicant is Bristol City Council working with Bristol and Bath Regional Capital, Bristol Energy Network, Bristol Green Capital Partnership, Bath and North East Somerset Council, Centre for Sustainable Energy, City Leap Energy Partnership Ltd, National Grid Electricity Distribution (South West), North Somerset Council, South Gloucestershire Council and West of England Combined Authority. The project work would happen in Bristol and the West of England Region. Project findings would be shared through the partners' extensive networks. The project would last for 21 months from January 2024\.

This project combines the development of a property filtering tool to be used by Bristol City Leap to identify which homes would be most impacted by different types of green retrofit upgrades. The UK has some of the most inefficient housing in Europe, with homes throughout the country exacerbating decarbonisation challenges and making Britain's housing stock a significant contributor to CO2 emissions \[www.ft.com\]. 3.18 million homes were believed to be in fuel poverty in the UK in 2019 (https://carbon.coop/) Bristol City Leap was established in 2023 to drive Bristol to net Zero by 2030\. Part of this commitment is to ensure all of Bristol City Housing Stock achieve EPC C ratings by 2030 and to support wider Bristol housing including low income households to achieve similar outcomes. During this project, Sustainable Systems (the online virtual consultancy service for homeowners who want to "green" their homes), will develop a remote property assessment and filtering tool for Bristol City Leap to be able to identify which properties will benefit most from different types of retrofit upgrades. This will be combined with the development of a householder engagement app to maximise scheme opt in, and outcomes, minimise drop out rates and provide efficient two way communication channels between Bristol City Leap and households. Our vision is to create the end to end system that can ensure the best retrofit outcomes throughout the UK for low income households, helping to eliminate fuel poverty and achieve our national net zero targets.