LoCASE Scheme to help small and medium sized businesses across the South East.
LoCASE has been introduced to offer local business support and energy efficiency funding across the South East. The scheme is thought to help small and medium sized business optimise their resources and adopt low carbon solutions in ways that will ultimately help improve profitability and competitiveness while helping reducing carbon.
The project will run over 3 years across the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, and is looking to cut carbon emissions by 6510 TCO², provide business support to 1050 SME’s and 67 new businesses, introduce 80 new products, creating over 270 new jobs in LCEGS sector and invest over £18 million in businesses. The scheme is being funded by the European Regional Development Fund 2014 – 2020.
There are two types of funding available:
- For South East Businesses offering low carbon goods or services. Any eligible business can claim against costs such as marketing, consultancy, equipment, IT Software, licences, training and certification. Up to 40% of costs for eligible projects will be funded (maximum £10k), with the remaining 60% matched by your business.
- Any SME or medium sized business across the South East network can qualify towards having energy efficiency measures installed for their business. The funding will cover up to 40% of the costs up to a maximum of £5k.
The scheme will also offer additional support by offering free workshops with a focus of building an environmental management system, called STEM, which is aligned with the requirements of ISO 14001. There will also be a number of events and conferences sharing information about the low carbon market including technology and procurement whilst also offering the change to network with other like-minded businesses.
If this scheme is of interest to you, and you would like more information then please contact our Client Development Manager, Jennifer Webb on jennifer@jcmlconsultancy.com .