Treasury rewards environmental schemes

ISB is a way of investing in partnership projects with the potential for transforming public services, to make them easier to use and pilot new ways of working.

London's Community Recycling Network has been given £377,780, to develop recycling facilities in Lambeth. This will deliver a cutting-edge waste education programme to disadvantaged households in Stockwell, and aims to create jobs through raising awareness about environmental and healthy living issues. It will also increase access to a wide range of services for disadvantaged local households.

Alison Mclaughlin, Chair of Aardvark Recycling said: "We're delighted to be receiving support from the Invest to Save Budget as it will strengthen Aardvark's delivery of recycling and reuse services to households in need. This will ensure that everyone has an opportunity to play their part in making Lambeth a cleaner, greener, healthier place to live."

Creative Environmental Networks (CEN) has been given £197,619, to develop a service that will support housing associations, universities, community groups and local authorities across London and the South East in the implementation of mini Combined Heat and Power (CHP) schemes. CHP provides an excellent opportunity for achieving carbon savings that are financially viable through proven technology, and forms an important part of the Government's climate change strategy.

Catherine McNab, CEN Project Manager said: "At last we are able to act on the fantastic sustainable energy opportunities we continue to identify, giving confidence to our partners and enabling installation of what is still regarded as a complex and challenging technology.

The funding will allow CEN to provide vital support to the social housing and student accommodation sectors, thus delivering sustained fuel bill and carbon savings, social benefit through alleviating fuel poverty and environmental benefit through the reduction of carbon emissions"

Energy efficiency was one of the main themes of this year's awards - winning projects have displayed measures such as energy action plans, improved energy saving measures in public buildings, and raising staff awareness of the cost savings from energy efficiency.

Congratulating the winning projects Elliot Morley said: "It is fantastic that energy efficiency has played a key theme in choosing this round of winning projects. Saving energy is vital and it is essential that it is built into as much development as possible.

"By saving energy we can help to preserve the world's fuel sources and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to climate change. If we can achieve this we are investing in a better quality of life for now and future generations.

"The projects also demonstrate other attributes that are key to a successful working in government and the public sector - partnership, improved efficiency, reduced costs, and better customer service.

"I am pleased that Defra has been able to successfully back these projects, enabling them to get over the initial hurdles that all new ventures face. I wish them every success and am looking forward to hearing of the results."

The Treasury has awarded total funding of £1.9 million to six Defra sponsored projects, as part of round 8 of the awards.

The ISB is a joint Treasury and Cabinet Office initiative, which encourages the public sector to develop new ways of working. The idea is that partnerships will be able to share expertise and new technology, as well as the risks involved setting up new ventures.

More joined up services will ultimately deliver benefits to people through long-term improvements in quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness of public services.

Lessons learned from the successes and failures of these projects will be used to inform the design of future services both in and outside the public sector.

A total of 30 awards have been made to projects across all departments. The projects are spread right across the public sector, involving central government, local government, health authorities, police and others; including private and voluntary sector partners where this makes delivery more effective.

Notes to Editors 1. The bids will have been assessed both within the Treasury and the relevant central government department against the following criteria: - innovation, what is genuinely new about the project and how much difference will it make to service delivery and efficiency, - potential benefits, both in terms of cost reduction and service improvements; - consistency with overall Departmental strategy; - sustainability once the period of ISB funding has ended; - strategies to manage the risks inherent in innovation; - commitment to partnership working; and, - potential to provide lessons for service delivery and the mechanisms to disseminate those lessons.

2. The Treasury assesses bids using a pre-determined, published set of criteria before making recommendations to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury who makes the final decision on winning projects. These projects have to agree an implementation plan with the sponsor department and Treasury. Each project has to provide six-monthly progress reports and carry out an evaluation of its success once it has been completed.

3. Details of all the winning projects can be found on the 'Projects' page of the ISB website at: 4. The Invest to Save Budget (ISB) was created in 1998 to fund projects, which bring together two or more public bodies to address gaps in the provision of public services, increase joint working across government; spread innovative ways of delivering public services; and improve the efficiency, quality and effectiveness of services delivered to the public.

5. After the eight rounds of the ISB to date, a total of around £450 million will have been allocated to projects between April 1999 and April 2008 6. Following a review in the lead up to Spending Review 2004, there is a new emphasis on local projects, focusing on community cohesion and engagement, with the voluntary and community sector playing an increasingly prominent role.