Carbon Copy: The ‘Glastonbury tickets’ for NHS estates

It is often described as like trying to get Glastonbury tickets for those in NHS estates. 

Think of a highly competitive process, with a rush to apply – sometimes a group effort – before everything quickly runs out. 

But instead of tickets to Worthy Farm, the prize is extra money from the government to decarbonise public sector buildings. 

The grants have been released in waves since 2020, with the winners from the latest round recently announced. Eighteen NHS trusts were successful in bids for heat pumps, solar panels, insulation and other measures. 

Imperial College Healthcare Trust had a particularly strong performance, winning a fifth of the £200m committed to the NHS. 

But many more will be left disappointed. Here’s Carbon Copy’s look at the scale of demand beyond the lucky few winners:

Oversubscribed

The NHS must reach net zero for its direct emissions – those it can directly control – by 2040 to meet a legal commitment, with buildings the largest chunk of this. 

Estates are understood to have been one of the trickiest areas to shift emissions so far and need lots of investment – unlike some other sustainability measures – to make progress. 

The public sector decarbonisation scheme is the best shot for NHS trusts to get additional money to make headway in this sphere. And crucially, these grants do not score against their capital expenditure limits as it does not come from Department of Health and Social Care coffers.

But it is, unsurprisingly, oversubscribed. Carbon Copy analysis shows the NHS submitted bids worth nearly £2bn in the first four rounds, but won just £750m in total.

It is also hampered by a “soft” cap policy, which is intended to limit the health sector to receiving no more than 35 per cent of all money paid out, although it can be higher if other sectors do not meet theirs. The sector’s enthusiasm has seen it manage to gobble a slightly bigger share in the past – gaining 37 per cent in the round before last – but its bids were around 54 per cent of total money asked for. 

The competitive scheme has operated on a first come, first served basis so far, with those unsuccessful saying they were simply too slow to put in their bids before available grants ran out.

This looks set to change in the upcoming round, which was expected to share details in the summer, although the election may have thrown a spanner in the works. 

So for those who missed out, it is back to trying to find both money and appetite for net zero upgrades to buildings from stretched operational capital budgets. 

And if current capital plans are anything to go by, it seems anything not immediate and of the highest priority looks likely to be pushed to the back burner. 

Greener NHS team

It was reported by The Telegraph earlier this year that the Greener NHS team planned to have 48 full-time equivalents working on the net zero agenda, with a combined salary bill of £3m. 

But Carbon Copy understands the current plan is in fact on a much smaller scale, as the team has not been immune to wider cuts across NHSE. 

Figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws, released last month, showed there were only 24 FTEs working for Greener NHS with an expected salary bill of £1.7m for this year. 

Its scale has reduced over the years, from 37 FTEs in March 2022 and a £2.4m salary bill in 2022-23.

Carbon Copy understands the current headcount was a result of the NHSE recruitment freeze. The team may still recruit to a few more vacancies but is unlikely to grow by much.