Agenda item

RECOMMENDED:  1)       That the Refit scheme is adopted by the Council

2)       The revenue budget to be amended to meet the £70,000 project costs as detailed in the report.

3)       That delegated authority be given to Executive Director – Finance Services (S151 Officer) in consultation with the Monitoring Officer to sign the necessary agreements to enter into the Refit scheme.

4)       That a report come back to Cabinet for final approval of the costed schemes prior to commencement.

Reason for Decision

Undertaking this project will significantly reduce energy consumption and expenditure across the Council estate.

Councillor Long presented a report which explained that the Council had made an objective to reduce council emissions and its carbon footprint and has a target to reduce the total emission of Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Footprint by 5% each year.

The UK target was for 15% of all energy to be from renewable sources by 2020. The former Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) now Department for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy had announced that, to achieve this, 30% of electricity, 12% of heat and 10% of transport fuel would come from renewable sources.

Electricity costs were expected to continue to rise above inflation in the next five years due to the government’s ‘electricity market reform’ and energy commodity prices were continuing to rise.

There was significant scope for improving energy performance of council buildings that were likely to be retained for the foreseeable future.

In order to improve energy efficiency in Council buildings significantly, investment was now required. The Refit option allowed the Council to develop a relationship with a pre-approved supplier that would deliver guaranteed savings and measured against an approved Measurement & Verification (M&V) plan. Refit was a joint venture between HM Treasury and the Local Government Association that allowed public bodies to achieve substantial guaranteed financial benefits through energy efficiency and / or generation. This was delivered by Local Partnerships. 

Over the past year the Council has been working with Local Partnerships and their Refit Programme, to scope a large scale energy efficiency project, which will reduce carbon emissions, energy use and associated costs.

A discussion was held on the monitoring of the level of carbon savings achievable with the schemes.  It was confirmed that as part of the procurement process the position would be established to allow monitoring once completed.

Cabinet requested that the schemes be developed, a full business case to the design stage be presented for formal submission to Cabinet before sign off.  It was anticipated that if it went according to schedule this would be approximately March and commencing work June subject to sign off.

Under Standing Order 34 Councillor Pope asked whether the Government’s cap on energy prices would also include commercial concerns or the increase in prices referred to was still the case.  It was confirmed that the cap was only for the domestic market.

The support of the Corporate Performance Panel for the recommendations was noted and the fact that the Panel intended to monitor the project was welcomed.

RECOMMENDED:  1)       That the Refit scheme is adopted by the Council

2)       The revenue budget to be amended to meet the £70,000 project costs as detailed in the report.

3)       That delegated authority be given to Executive Director – Finance Services (S151 Officer) in consultation with the Monitoring Officer to sign the necessary agreements to enter into the Refit scheme.

4)       That a report come back to Cabinet for final approval of the costed schemes prior to commencement.

Reason for Decision

Undertaking this project will significantly reduce energy consumption and expenditure across the Council estate.