funding scheme / LCSF

Low Carbon Skills Fund

Author: Oliver Wakefield-Smith, Founder Digital Signet. Reviewed against DfE Sustainability Strategy (Mar 2025) and Education Estates Strategy (Feb 2026). Verified 22 June 2026.

The Low Carbon Skills Fund is closed. Phase 5 (delivered in 2024/25, applications April 2024) was the last round, and on 15 May 2025 the government confirmed there would be no LCSF funding in financial year 2025/26. Schools that still need a Heat Decarbonisation Plan should now approach their regional Local Net Zero Hub, which provides strategy-stage HDP support free of charge, rather than an LCSF grant.

Current status: closed

State-funded schools, FE colleges and academy trusts could previously apply for LCSF grants to procure a Heat Decarbonisation Plan (HDP). No round is open: Phase 5 was the final phase and there is no LCSF funding for 2025/26. There is no confirmed successor. Confirm on the GOV.UK LCSF collection page before assuming any open round.

What replaced it: Local Net Zero Hubs

The government now directs public sector bodies to their regional Local Net Zero Hub for strategic and technical support on heat decarbonisation plans, offered free of charge. This is the practical route for a school that would previously have used an LCSF grant to fund HDP consultancy.

Why the HDP still matters

Even with LCSF and PSDS closed, a Heat Decarbonisation Plan remains the core planning document: it should document baseline energy use, fabric and plant condition, measure options with CAPEX and payback, and a decarbonisation pathway to 2050. It underpins CIF condition bids, board-level capital cases and any future funding round, so the work is not wasted.

HDP deliverables

Energy baseline by fuel; building survey; measure cost matrix; option-appraisal with sequencing; carbon and cost trajectory; deliverability plan.

Sources cited on this page

Prepared by schoolnetzero.co.uk, 22 June 2026.Page: funding-lcsf-feasibilityAuthor: Oliver Wakefield-Smith, Founder Digital Signet.