Through Budget 2009, Government made available £25 million for community heating infrastructure in the UK. Of this, £20.96 million was made available for schemes in England (and is being administered by the Homes and Communities Agency on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government). Through this fund we have allocated £1.5 million to provide Milton Keynes with a new biomethane plant which, along with the city's planned anaerobic digestion plant, will power households with green energy by injecting biomethane gas into the regional gas network.
Support for low carbon building projects is also provided through the work of the Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board, funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. The Technology Strategy Board has a significant programme of work relevant to this area under its Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform.
In addition, my Department's policies also provide significant funding to support the retrofit of energy efficiency measures in existing homes, through programmes such as the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (£3.2 billion over 2008-11), Warm Front (£950 million over 2008-11), and the Community Energy Saving Programme (£350 million over 2009-12). In the Low Carbon Transition Plan we committed to continuing the CERT programme for at least a further 21 months potentially driving a further £1.9 billion of investment before the end of 2012.