Business Renewable Energy Fund

• You must be a new or existing business located in, or planning to locate in, Carmarthenshire. Support is aimed primarily at existing businesses, including social enterprises, operating in or serving advanced materials and manufacturing; construction; creative industries; energy and environment; finance and professional services; IT and telecoms; life sciences; food and drink; tourism; retail; or care. The council assesses contribution to the local economy and commitment to decarbonisation case by case.
• The premises must be on the council’s Non-Domestic Rates register. You must own the freehold or hold a Land Registry-registered lease lasting at least five years after final grant payment. Supply title documents and, for leased premises, the landlord’s written consent. For a limited company, the freehold or leasehold must be in that company’s name. Work already started is ineligible, as is second-hand equipment.
• Excluded activities include primary agricultural production, forestry, aquaculture, fishing, statutory services such as education and primary healthcare, party-political purposes, promoting particular secular, religious or political views, gambling, pornography and sexual services. Illegal activity and activity the council considers could bring it or the UK Government into disrepute are also excluded.
• The council’s examples of that latter exclusion include unregulated and invasive procedures, products and treatments; nude or semi-nude modelling; gaming centres; sunbeds; alternative therapies, products and medicines; acupuncture; vape shops; tobacconists; social-media influencing; counselling; life coaching; tattooists; speculative building; complementary medical treatments; cosmetic products; aesthetic procedures; CBD oil products; and cryptocurrency. This list is not exhaustive.
• Declare public-sector grants and support received over the last three financial years. Minimum Financial Assistance, the subsidy category used for this scheme, must not exceed £315,000 over a rolling three-fiscal-year period at company-group level. You must monitor this total and declare that the threshold has not been exceeded if offered a grant. Demonstrate compliance with the UK subsidy-control regime. Grant may be withheld if the business or applicant owes overdue payments to participating local authorities.

Claims require invoices and evidence that the business paid the supplier. Cash, lease purchase, hire purchase, extended credit agreements and finance leases are ineligible. A business-owned credit card is permitted if its statement is supplied.

Complete and claim all expenditure, and provide evidence of promised outputs, by 31 December 2026. Claims must also meet the earlier four-month deadline in the offer terms. Failure to achieve committed outputs can lead to recovery of the grant. Take renewable-generation meter readings annually and provide them for monitoring. The eligibility section reserves monitoring at years 1, 3 and 5 from application receipt; the post-completion terms also require claim and evidence monitoring at years 1, 3 and 5 from award, with prior notice.

The grant will be recovered if the business stops trading, relocates or the property is sold within five years of award. Separately, substantial changes to the project’s approved use or changes of owner without notifying the council can trigger repayment during the five years after final payment: the published minimum is 100% within year 1, 80% within year 2, 60% within year 3, 40% within year 4 and 20% within year 5, with none under that schedule after five years. Overpayments can also be recovered. Full repayment on demand applies to misrepresentation, breach of the condition stated in the council’s clawback terms, or failure to fully reinstate assets or property within 12 months after loss or damage.

For grant-supported property construction or improvement, the council will seek a Land Registry restriction or legal charge; the terms specify restrictions for grants of £25,000 or less for the relevant funding-programme period. This records the council’s interest in the property and alerts it to ownership changes. You are responsible for arranging removal and paying its costs when that period ends.

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Applications are closed. Email BREF@carmarthenshire.gov.uk to join the council’s waiting list; it will contact you if the scheme is extended or a new round opens.

The published intake used an expression of interest followed by a full application only after eligibility approval. Completed applications were considered first come, first served until funds were allocated, with a discretionary council-panel decision based on business viability, carbon savings and value for money. Requests above £10,000 required Cabinet Member ratification.

The full application required accounts, proof of match funding for your share of the costs, premises title or lease and landlord consent, written supplier quotations, relevant statutory consents, a sustainability statement or environmental policy, compliance with Welsh Language Standards assessed through the application, and a certificate for the one-day ‘Awareness of Environmental Technologies’ course. Businesses trading for less than two years could supply management accounts or an income-and-expenditure summary from trading start to application; otherwise at least two full years of historical accounts and recent management accounts, if available, were required. If statutory consents were unnecessary, written confirmation from the relevant authority was required. The application steps also listed a completed Welsh Government Green Growth Pledge.

Estimate the tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent saved over three years after installation by comparing pre-installation usage with the new system. This measures the expected greenhouse-gas reduction; the council calculates savings from your supplied figures using its cited government conversion factors.

For procurement up to £9,999, obtain and retain at least one written quote and a documented value-for-money decision. From £10,000 to £74,999, seek at least three competitive written quotes using the same specification, evaluation criteria and closing date, and retain the evaluation and award records. If only one quote arrives, obtain council approval before purchase; advertising through Sell2Wales may be required. Explore local suppliers and be ready to show quotes were sought. These rules apply as a minimum to the total estimated requirement even where other funding streams contribute.

Declare procurement conflicts of interest in writing to the project officer, exclude interested parties from evaluation, keep criteria impartial and record the process. Inform the officer of specification changes affecting scope, which may require a new procurement exercise. Non-compliance can withdraw the offer or trigger repayment.

Award recipients must accept the terms within 30 days, purchase approved items and submit their claim within four months of the offer letter or by 31 December 2026, whichever is earlier. Ask for any extension or changes to items or suppliers; do not purchase changed items before approval. Variations to approval-letter terms must be requested and agreed, and an offer lapses if the project does not proceed within its stipulated period. Claims require invoices or receipts, bank statements showing supplier payments, photos and bank details.