A 50% increase in funding for householders to install small scale renewables such as micro wind turbines and solar panels was announced in the Budget today.

It will take the total available under the Low Carbon Building Programme to more than £18million. At the same time the scheme is to be re-shaped to make best use of the extra funding.

Proposals will be brought forward in May. Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said:

'With this extra £6m there is now £18m for homeowners who want to go low carbon. There has been exceptional demand for grants under the Low Carbon Building Programme. We are backing it. But there have been problems in meeting that unprecedented demand. We will re-structure the scheme to make it work better.'

'We want many more people to be able to install low carbon technologies on their homes to help reduce damaging carbon emissions. This extra money will help us do it. Good for homeowners and the nvironment. '

While the scheme is re-structured the decision has been taken to suspend it for the April allocation. It's important that this final additional funding for household renewables, due to end in mid 2008, is used to best effect to bring on a microgeneration sector that can stand on its own two feet without further subsidy.

DTI Ministers will be meeting with industry to discuss how best to operate the new scheme and will announce the way forward in May. There were also a number of other ways of encouraging microgeneration in today's Budget.

We will be consulting this spring on EEC3 and how microgeneration can be included within the Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) as a measure energy suppliers can provide to their customers to meet their commitments.

These initiatives, along with the waiving of income tax on any surplus electricity sold back to the grid by microgenerators, add up to a major focus on reducing carbon emissions from our homes.

The Transport Direct website, which provides online journey planning information to travellers, has also been updated to give fuel consumption and carbon emissions figures for individual car journeys, according to engine size.
Later this year, the campaign will also feature a new car ranking system which will give information to consumers on the lowest carbon cars within the category and price range of their choice. The ranking is currently in development.

Notes to Editors:

• * The Department for Transport's campaign is the first to be launched under the cross Government brand 'Act on CO2', aimed at giving the public useful information on how to reduce their individual carbon emissions. The brand was developed by the Department for Transport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• * The DfT campaign launches today (Sunday 11 March) with a website, online and print advertising. Outdoor and radio advertising will start on Monday. TV advertising is planned later in the year.
• * For further information on the campaign visit:
  http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1505511
  http://www.defra.gov.uk/news
• * The Smarter Driving tips were developed with the Driving Standards Agency
• * The Department for Transport's Journey Planner, Transport Direct (http://www.transportdirect.info), has been developed to include fuel and carbon information about car journeys.
• * The 8% fuel saving assumption is based on trials undertaken by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). The fuel cost saving is calculated using fuel prices taken on 26/2/2007. The CO2 emissions were calculated using 2005 car and taxi fuel sales figures from 'Transport Statistics Great Britain 2006'.

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