You don’t need to be Nigel Farage to question the European funding frameworks which underpin the delivery of schemes such as Low Carbon Champions.  Cumbersome, complex and costly (anecdotal evidence suggests such funding adds at least 40% to project cost) another problem is continuity – or rather lack of it.   

Low Carbon Champions cost a very hefty £600k with the express intention of seeding champions in the SME community.  OK, it’s happened but is the most being made of this resource?  Well no, not really.  It’s hard to blame those at Suffolk CC whose activities are dictated to by remote centralised funding and the flurry of central govt initiatives which seem to change daily.   

Michael Hesseltine has argued strongly for regional funding (No Stone Unturned) but until this happens we’ll use low-cost, bottom-up ideas like Low Carbon Deviants that avoid funding issues completely.