The Ealing Council climate offset fund is supporting lots of inspiring climate saving projects to help the climate and improve lives. Projects involved in cutting our carbon include solar panels on schools, energy saving in leisure centres and providing Ealing schools with sustainability managers.
The Community Action Funds are open for grants until Tuesday 22 July 2025. See Ealing Community Climate Action Fund for more details.
Where does climate offset funds come from?
The funds come from developers to offset times when their new buildings don’t meet carbon requirements.
A recent article on Climate Funds in the Guardian looked at the huge amounts of money being collected by councils for spending on climate projects. It said that there is more than £140m going unspent across London, paid in by developers to offset times when their buildings don’t meet carbon requirements. ActForEaling is interested to see where this money is being spent. This is important to us at ActForEaling, a central hub for anyone interested and involved in environmental action in Ealing.
Where does Ealing Council stand?
Ealing Council confirmed that this carbon offset funding has set up projects that have to contributed to reducing carbon emissions. There are strict rules in place where this money can be invested. They provided us with some case studies of how money has been spent.
Carbon offset funding has set up projects, such as:
- Private sector buildings: A climate grant helped Acton Baptist Church make the case to match fund 18 solar panels on their roof. This lowered their energy bills. This has resulted in them offering better rates for community room hire.
- Enabling projects: A grant helped set up Sustainability Managers for Schools. Schools applied for a free sustainability manager to help save the school money and boost pupils’ green skills. For more details see Green growth in Ealing’s schools.
- Public buildings: At 3 leisure centres in Acton, Dormers Wells and Northolt, the carbon offset has part-funded energy projects. The heat pumps and solar thermal led to lower energy costs and reducing dependence on imported gas.
Has Ealing Council spent the money that’s come in?
The amount mentioned by the Guardian is misleading as it included money not yet received. The council began collecting contributions in 2021, and between then and May 2025:
- £5.94m has been received
- £3.53m has been spent
- £2.23m more is earmarked for spending
- 64 projects have been approved
- £13.0m of receipts are projected to come into the carbon offset fund in future from ongoing housing developments
How can local groups benefit?
The carbon offset fund has to be spent by the council and is not as standard publicly accessible. Some of the funds have become available to fund public projects. We feature this in our news items on ActForEaling website, such as the Community Climate Grants which closed recently, but another round will open soon. Stay up to date with ActForEaling to keep informed about opportunities from the council’s climate team, by signing up to the weekly email update.
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