•  a 3,000 household pilot scheme to ensure people applying for Warm Front grants are referred to their energy supplier for tariff advice;
• a £3m pilot project with the low carbon buildings programme to introduce microgeneration to fuel-poor communities;
•  publication of the heat call for evidence to assist development of a heat strategy and measures to reduce energy demand – the strategy will be consulted on in the autumn;
• £150,000 for a citizens’ advice bureaux campaign to help vulnerable people.

The Low Carbon Buildings Programme has funded 5,083 “successfully completed installations,” according to energy minister Malcolm Wicks. It funded 805 Phase 1 projects in 2006, 2938 Phase 1 and 387 Phase 2 in 2007, and 724 Phase 1  and 229 Phase 2 in 2008. In 2006/7 the cost of administering the scheme was £2,037,405; and in 2007/8 it was £435,831.

The National Landlords Association has urged its members to use the Landlords’ Energy Saving Allowance which offers them tax breaks when they claim for the cost of energy saving items on their tax returns.

A new capital grant programme to support recycling businesses working to divert construction waste from landfill has been launched by the Waste & Resources Action Programme.

Applicants for heritage grants over £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund will need to have regard to the Fund’s new Planning Greener Heritage Projects guidance. Although the diversity of projects precludes use of minimum standards, the guidance sets out the environmental impacts it expects to see considered and the type responses it believes would be appropriate for grant funding. The guidance affects both stages of the grant application. “We recognise that more sustainable solutions sometimes (but not always) involve higher upfront costs,” says the guidance. “We are prepared to fund these extra costs where we consider them to offer value for money.” The guidance includes advice on energy, water, building materials, construction waste, soil, biodiversity and transport.

Current water use is unsustainable and water funding, costs and provision can no longer be taken for granted but must be identified as a political priority.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), based at Loughborough University aims to develop ways to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

The Waste & Resources Action Plan has found £2.3m to fund an extra three-quarters of a million tonnes of aggregate recycling capacity each year.

From a budget of £36m for the Low Carbon Buildings Programme Phase 1 there remains £16,492,729 uncommitted,

The government has been criticised for only spending a quarter of the funds it pledged for energy efficiency.