£40 million green recovery challenge fund

On 14^th September, the Government announced the £40 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund, as part of the Government’s green economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic.

The funding will be delivered by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency. The aim is to safeguard up to 2,000 jobs, whilst creating up to 3,000 jobs in areas such as protecting species, finding nature-based solutions to tackle climate change and conservation rangers.

In order to apply for the fund applicants had to either be an environmental charity or a partnership that included a charity, and also meet the project criteria of contributing to at least one environment measure. This included nature conservation and restoration, nature-based solutions with a focus on climate change mitigation and adaption such as through tree planting and restoring peatland and connecting people with nature.

Applicants who are successful will receive a grant ranging from £50k to £5 million, providing jobs and skills packages in order to help environmental charities and partners to start work across England in tackling climate change.

As I understand it, applicants could apply for projects which were ready to deliver and spend the grant fully by March 2022.  I hope this will be of help to groups in Norfolk and benefit constituents in north Norwich.

This fund stands to create jobs whilst also helping protect our environment, and that's what I want to see for us locally.  More broadly, I welcome the fund as part of the Government’s green economic recovery and there'll be plenty more to do.