Which Environmental Departments Are Going To Suffer As A Result Of The New Government?

When the new Coalition Government came in we all knew there was going to have to be spending cuts and around £250 million of these cuts are set to come from environment departments.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is set to lose 5.5 per cent of its budget, amounting to £162 million, while the Department of Energy and Climate Change will lose £85 million which is around 2.5 per cent of theirs. Both departments are likely to have to cut spending on major programmes in order to meet the savings as reducing recruitment and internal spending would not be enough.

As Britain’s 200,000 farmers and landowners receive billions of their funding from European subsidies on owning land and growing food, they are not likely to be majorly affected by the cuts. However, due to the withdrawal of funding for regional development agencies, it is likely that green building and conservation efforts will be badly hit as they subsidise many renewable energy, agricultural and environmental schemes.

Currently the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spends far less on administration than DEFRA so is expected to drastically cut spending on household energy efficiency schemes which could affect investment in low-carbon technologies badly. The DECC’s three biggest delivery bodies are all expected to see budget cuts over the coming year.

The Environmental Transformation Fund who invest and promote new low-carbon technologies will see a massive funding cut of 22 per cent, totalling £120 million. Also, the Low Carbon Building Programme that provides grants for clean household energy technology installations will not be continued and is now closed to applicants. The Low Carbon Building Programme offered grants for micro-generation systems such as small scale wind turbines and solar panels (photovoltaics) but these were withdrawn at the beginning of April when feed-in tariffs that pay homeowners for every unit of clean energy they produce were introduced.

The ending of the Low Carbon Building Programme will produce only a small saving of around £3 million but will mean that there will be no funding for green heating systems currently available. It is likely that the Government will start a scheme around Spring 2011 as that is when the previous Government planned to introduce their Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.

By: James Driffield

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Environmental advice from energy efficient double glazing specialist, Safestyle UK