£1.5 million grant for Phase 2 of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission

The UKCCIC is a partnership between Connected Places Catapult, Core Cities UK, London Councils and other local authorities across the UK aimed at supporting local authorities secure the necessary long-term finance for achieving Net Zero​. 

Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and places. 

The UKCCIC is achieving this through:  

• Innovating new approaches and mechanisms for securing investment, testing and deploying these within the market. 
• Accelerating the speed of collaboration between local and national government, industry and financial institutions by convening partners and promoting best practice.​ 
• Advocating for changes in approach to investment across local and national government, which help secure the levels of investment needed.​ 

This next phase of work follows phase one, completed in October 2021, and is part of a five-year programme focussing on the establishment of a Development Fund, supporting long-term project development. 

As part of Phase One the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission (UKCCIC)​:  

• Identified an investment opportunity of £206 billion across five asset classes of which residential retrofit is the largest.​ 
• Developed a blended finance model where revenues from more profitable assets such as renewables are used to support those in more benign ones such as retrofit.​ 
• Engaged with over 5,000 individuals through online events and podcasts as well as holding four highly successful events during COP26 

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is providing £1.5m of funding to support Phase 2 of the programme, which will run to October 2022. It is being used to; 

• Oversee the production of a strategic outline case and outline business case, to help secure funding from central government for Phase 3​ 
• Define the business case for securing long – term development finance to support project identification, design and financing. ​ 
• Implement a public affairs programme with partners and stakeholders across local and national government, industry and finance to promote the work of the UKCCIC, including targeted marketing, communications and events programme​ 

As part of this phase Connected Places Catapult will play a key role as the delivery partner for the phase, focused on convening the actors necessary to successfully implement this ambitious programme of work including but not limited to: Arup, Bankers without Boundaries, Eunomia, Jacobs, TPX Impact, and Sleek Events. Connected Places Catapult will also use its experience and reach to integrate this programme into the wider UKCCIC and ensure the quality of all outputs. 

Prof Greg Clark CBE, Chair of the Connected Places Catapult and UKCCIC said  “This programme of work will further the UKCCIC in its mission to accelerate opportunities for public and private investment in NetZero transitions for UK cities. It will allow the UKCCIC to do the work necessary to build a pilot programme dedicated to testing the place-based approach to Net Zero.”