You can get a discount on the cost of new low-emission motorcycles, vans, trucks, taxis and wheelchair accessible vehicles funded by the government's 'Plug-in Grant'; the grant is included in the price offered by the vehicle dealer.
Grants and incentives
Grants and incentives
The UK government has developed a range of grants and incentives to help the UK meet its climate change targets. These measures could help you and your business take action by adopting low carbon technologies such as electric vehicles, heat pumps and solar panels.
Government grants |
Last updated 25 April 2023 |
The government’s Workplace charging scheme (WCS) provides up to 75% of the total cost of the purchase and installation of electric vehicle (EV) charge points for eligible businesses, charities and public sector organisations. The grant provides up to £350 per socket, up to a maximum of 40 sockets, to be installed as dedicated off-street parking for employees, visitors or fleet use.
If you’re a small or medium sized business (less than 249 employees) you can apply for a grant to help you install EV charge points at your business premises. The charge points installed must be exclusively for your employees or fleet and not used by your customers or visitors.
You can apply for up to five grants per business at different sites you own or lease, and up to £15,000 per grant. Find out more about the grant here.
You can apply to the ‘Workplace charger grants’ and ‘EV infrastructure grant for staff and fleets’ for the same site, but not for the same chargers.
As an employer you should also let your employees know about the grants available to help them install an EV charge point at home.
If you live in rental accommodation or own a flat in the UK, the government’s EV charge point grant provides funding of up to 75% towards the cost of installing EV charge points, up to a maximum of £350. Homeowners in houses and bungalows are not eligible for the grant.
The On-street residential chargepoint scheme (ORCS) provides grant funding for local authorities towards the cost of installing on-street residential charge points for plug-in electric vehicles.
The IETF is designed to help businesses with high energy use to cut their energy bills and carbon emissions by investing in energy efficiency and low carbon technologies.
Grant funding is available for feasibility and engineering studies, and for the deployment of industrial energy efficiency and deep decarbonisation projects. The government announced £315 million of funding in the 2018 budget and in 2022 announed an extension to the scheme which is now available until 31 March 2027.
The autumn 2022 competition opened for applications on Monday 10 October 2022. The deadline for submitting applications has now been extended to 17 February 2023.
The government is providing grants to encourage property owners to install low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps, through its boiler upgrade scheme.
The scheme runs from 2022 to 2025 and is open to domestic and small non-domestic properties in England and Wales up to 45kWth. You can claim £5,000 off the cost and installation of an air source heat pump or a biomass boiler, or £6,000 for a ground source heat pump.
On 9 January 2023, the government announced a new energy bills discount scheme (EBDS) for non-domestic consumers to run from April 2023 to April 2024. The scheme is available to everyone on a non-domestic energy supply contract with a licensed energy supplier including businesses, voluntary sector organisations such as charities, and public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals and care homes.
This scheme replaces the energy bill relief scheme which supported businesses and organisations between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Under the new scheme, if wholesale prices exceed a certain price threshold, eligible non-domestic consumers will receive a per-unit discount to their energy bills subject to a maximum discount.
Further advice from energy regulator Ofgem for non-domestic consumers for autumn/winter 2022/2023 can be found here.
In November 2022, the government introduced a scheme which provides match funding for industry operators to improve HGV driver welfare and facilities. This includes electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Companies can apply for an improvement grant of up £315,000 per site.
You must submit your application to the Department for Transport by 24 February 2023 and demonstrate that the improvement project can be completed by 31 March 2024.
You can find out more on the government website.
The heat network efficiency scheme (HNES) provides funding to public, private and third sector applicants in England and Wales to support improvements to existing district heating or communal heating projects that are operating sub-optimally and resulting in poor outcomes for customers and operators.
It's a £32 million grant support programme spanning 2023-2024 (Year 1) and 2024-2025 (Year 2).
Find out more on the government website.
Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS) - support and funding for businesses to help reduce carbon emissions.
Cumbria Tourism – summary of grants and funding available for local businesses.
Cumbria Chamber of Commerce – the chamber finance-finder helps simplify and match up businesses with the right funding opportunities across loans, equity investment, grants and commercial mortgages (members only).
Cumbria Business Growth Hub - details a wide range of funding opportunities available to help finance your business.
Greening Eden - provides funding for businesses across Eden to measure greenhouse gas emissions and identify opportunities for reduction.
Low Carbon Barrow - grants for local businesses or community groups carrying out capital work to reduce carbon emissions.
Lake District Foundation – funding for effective and evidence-based projects that share the foundation’s goal to make the Lake District and Cumbria an inspirational example of sustainable development.
Westmorland & Furness Green Enterprise Hub Grant Scheme - grants are available to support the installation or implementation of carbon reduction practices, which include activities and/or the purchase of equipment and capital work that will support the decarbonisation of your organisation.
Boost business support directory - details of funded programmes from Lancashire’s business growth hub, and an up-to-date directory of other available business support in Lancashire.
Chamber Low Carbon – support to help your business adopt low carbon technologies and renewable energy generation.
Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) - help for the North West’s manufacturing community to access advanced technologies to drive improvements in productivity, performance and quality.
MaCaW - funded by the European Regional Development Fund, MaCaW helps Lancashire SMEs to reduce their carbon footprint, save money on energy costs and provides grant funding to purchase low carbon technologies.
Business Growth Hub - business support finder focused on funded or subsidised advice and support services, along with a range of funding and finance options for businesses in Greater Manchester.
Bee net zero green finance - Get a better understanding of the green financing options available for Greater Manchester businesses and find out about some free to use tools.
Incentives and tax benefits
You can claim capital allowances when you buy plant and machinery that are used in your business which allows you to deduct the cost from your profits before you pay tax.
Super deduction – you can deduct 130% of the cost of your taxable profits for the purchase of new qualifying plant and machinery incurred between 3 March 2021 and 31 March 2023, meaning you will have less corporation tax to pay.
Example: In the accounting period ended 31 March 2023, Company X incurs the following expenditure:
- £500,000 on new vans
- £450,000 on new charging points
- £30,000 on the installation of those charging points
- £20,000 in associated legal costs
All would qualify for the super deduction. 130% of the total £1m spend would be allowed as a deduction in the accounting period ended 31 March 2023.
£1,300,000 tax deduction at a corporation tax rate of 19%, provides a tax saving of £247,000 on a £1,000,000 spend.
Qualifying items include commercial vehicles (lorries and vans), charge points (used for commercial or private vehicles) and solar panels. Installation costs and other legal and professional costs may also qualify for the 130% super deduction. Find out more here.
First year allowances – you can claim 100% first year capital allowance on electric and low emission vehicles and EV charge points until 31 March 2025. This means you can deduct 100% of the cost from your taxable profits, meaning lower corporation tax.
Find out more about first year allowances here.
A company car which is also available for private use is a taxable benefit and is subject to benefit in kind/company car tax. From 2022 - 2025 company car tax for pure EVs is 2%, compared to up to 33% for petrol vehicles and 37% for diesel vehicles.
In his autumn statement the chancellor announced that tax for electric and ultra-low emission cars will increase by 1% in 2025-26, a further 1% in 2026-27 and a further 1% in 2027-28 up to a maximum of 5% for EVs and 21% for ultra-low emission vehicles.
You can calculate the potential savings with the government’s company car and car fuel benefit calculator.
Find out more about company car tax here.
As well as employees paying benefit in kind tax on their company vehicle, as a business you will pay employer’s national insurance contributions based on the car’s benefit in kind value. Since this tax is based on CO2 emissions the cost is greatly reduced if your employees opt for an EV as their company vehicle. From April 2022, Class 1A national insurance is 15.05% of the vehicle’s benefit value.
Due to their zero- or low-level of CO2 emissions, EVs valued less than £40,000 are exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED/road tax) until April 2025. Road tax on EVs will then change to the standard rate, currently £165 for cars and £290 for vans. Find out more here.
EVs purchased through a company salary sacrifice basis are exempt from the tax rules which came into effect in 2017, which removed the tax benefits for traditional vehicles.
Car fuel benefit charge is a tax paid by employees who receive free fuel from their employer, a portion of which is used for private mileage in a company car. Employees pay tax on the cash equivalent of the benefit in kind represented by that fuel. As current tax law doesn’t treat electricity as a road fuel, the car fuel benefit charge doesn’t apply to company cars charged in the workplace.
The energy bills discount scheme (EBDS) for non-domestic customers will run for 12 months from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
This scheme replaces the energy bill relief scheme which supported businesses and organisations between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.
The scheme is made up of three parts:
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The baseline discount will provide some support with energy bills for eligible non-domestic customers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland – this support will be applied automatically
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The Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) discount will provide a higher level of support to businesses and organisations in eligible sectors – you will need to register to get this support
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The Heat Network discount will provide a higher level of support to heat networks with domestic end consumers – you need to register to get this support
Most eligible non-domestic customers receiving the baseline discount should expect to see it in their May bill.
‘Flexible services’ is the term used for paying a customer/provider to reduce their electricity consumption or increase generation on request, due to a network constraint. A network constraint occurs when the demand for electricity is greater than the amount the local network is able to provide safely. Where cost-effective, flexible services can provide an alternative solution to network reinforcement.
Flexible services are provided in response to a tender process advertised on our website. You can respond to the tender if you’re connected or can connect to the part of the network where we have identified a constraint and if you can vary the amount of energy you use at agreed times and dates. Find out more.