London's Mayor launches £500mn business energy efficiency fund

The Mayor of London has launched a new £500mn fund to boost energy efficiency in public buildings and small businesses across the city – a move he hopes will accelerate the capital’s ambition to become ‘a zero-carbon city’ by 2050.

The Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF), announced by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, will provide ‘flexible and competitive finance’, along with a wide range of funding options to deliver new low carbon technology or upgrade existing low carbon infrastructure in the city. 

It has been launched as part of of London’s low carbon strategic ambition of a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2025, and follows on from the success of the capital’s Green City Fund – a £3mn fund launched in 2017 to help Londoners plant more trees across the capital, with a target to make the city 50% green by 2050.

The wide range of initiatives to be supported by the MEEF include battery electricity storage, electric vehicle rapid charging infrastructure, decentralised energy, small-scale renewables, energy efficiency and low carbon data centres for Greater London boroughs. Buildings and small businesses set to benefit include the NHS, charity and voluntary organisations, as well as small-medium enterprises.

The MEEF, launched by Greater London Authority (GLA) is being jointly funded by the European Commission, Amber Infrastructure Group and major banking groups including Santander UK, Lloyds and Natwest. It comes in response to a recent study from the UK's Green Finance Taskforce, which revealed that many public sector organisations and small businesses were keen to install energy efficiency measures, but lacked the financial capacity to do so.

Sadiq Khan said: ‘This is the largest fund of its kind in the UK that will help deliver the low carbon, sustainable projects and infrastructure London needs to cut energy costs and reduce carbon emissions across our universities, hospitals, museums and small businesses.

He added: ‘It is a great example of how the public and private sectors can come together to create millions of pounds of investment for low carbon projects and help fast track London towards our goal of becoming a zero-carbon city by 2050.’