Low take-up on green incentives

Companies are not taking full advantage of financial incentives on offer to make business greener, according to new research.

Environmental grants advisory Green Grants Machine says that businesses in the east, northeast and London specifically, have only utilised half of the government’s palette of green incentives that could save them money by going green.

The research also highlights that businesses in the northwest and southeast have access to 20 separate local and regional schemes, while London has 12 regional schemes available to businesses.

There are a total of 97 national environmental funding schemes and around £1.2bn worth of funding programmes available, including:

• The Climate Change Levy exemptions allowing companies to be excluded from paying tax on energy usage if it is from a renewable source;
• Barclay’s Green Cash Back Loan offering cash-back of between £600 to £51,000 on loans ranging from £100,000 to £8.5m when used for environmental initiatives; and
• The Carbon Trust’s interest-free loans of up to £100,000 to help companies reduce energy costs.

Useful links
www.greengrantsmachine.co.uk