Authority fails to spend £33m on energy efficiency

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority was awarded £78.35m from central government

An authority will return more than £33m to central government after failing to spend it on improving the energy efficiency of homes.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority was managing the scheme across 136 local authorities.

It was given £78.35m by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and previously returned £22m.

Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, Lucy Nethsingha, said the situation was "disappointing".

The money was supposed to be used to improve energy efficiency of homes in the South East of England.

Mayor Dr Nik Johnson said it was a "regrettable" situation

The Green Homes Grant, also referred to as the Local Authority Delivery (LAD2) programme, focussed on low income and low EPC rated households, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

It hoped to help tackle fuel poverty by improving energy efficiency and therefore reducing energy bills, as well aiming to "deliver cost effective carbon savings" and progress towards the UK's target for net zero by 2050.

A report presented to the authority's board said the impact of the money being returned on Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was a loss of about £2m.

As of the end of July, the scheme had delivered 1,376 measures to 860 households across the South East, and it said work was ongoing to "maximise" the delivery of the scheme in the time remaining.

The returned £55.35m overall could be made available to similar schemes, or could be returned to HM Treasury.

Councillor Chris Boden, leader of Fenland District Council, said it was a "regrettable situation".

Mayor Dr Nik Johnson said: "I share the frustrations, reservations knowing that the combined authority has not delivered as it could have done.

"Maybe on this occasion we were trying to run before we could walk in terms of taking on huge responsibility... you look back on that now and say that was a mistake, but we learn from those."