Surrey SME Decarbonisation Loan Programme Pilot Market Engagement

Surrey County Council aim to commission a loan management company to deliver our new SME Decarbonisation Loan Programme Pilot. The pilot will provide loan funding to SMEs to help them to decarbonise by installing measures including heating, lighting, and insulation improvements.

The County Council has delivered many successful grant programmes for businesses. This loan programme is a new and innovative approach that will help inform our future strategy to support businesses to decarbonise. Our Greener Futures Finance Strategy was approved by our Cabinet in 2023 and sets out innovative finance measures, including loans, to help deliver our decarbonisation targets. The County Council has secured an initial capital loan fund allocation of £200k for year 1 (ending 31 March 2025). We anticipate that this will fund circa 20 SME businesses up to a maximum loan of £15k per business to install decarbonisation measures. Businesses would need to provide 50% match funding towards their investment and loans would be repaid over a period of up to 3 years.

We have recently delivered the successful LoCASE grant programme in Surrey, which funded SME businesses with similar decarbonisation measures. This has demonstrated a demand from businesses to decarbonise, the carbon savings and energy savings that it can provide to businesses.

We will work with you to bring our skills in marketing funding programmes for businesses and conducting decarbonisation needs assessments to reach our network of the SME businesses.

There is a potential for an additional £400k capital funding, should this year 1 pilot be a success and approval secured from our Capital Programme Panel.