LWaRB opens 16m waste infrastructure fund

The London Waste and Recycling Board has today said it will focus on supporting projects outside of East London as it launches a new 16 million fund to support the development of new waste infrastructure.

The Waste Infrastructure Fund, which is a mix of loan and investment support, represents the majority of the 26.3 million the body said it planned to allocate over the next four years when its 2011-15 business plan was approved by its members last month (see letsrecycle.com story).

Announcing the fund as open for applications from today (July 8), the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB) noted that, since it was set up in September 2008, the majority of infrastructure it has supported has been in East London.

And, in light of this it said that the new funding pot would have a particular interest in projects located outside the four East London boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge.

The 16 million fund is the second LWaRB funding pot to specifically support new infrastructure, following an earlier 40 million fund and is divided into two areas:

An 11 million waste infrastructure loan fund for projects that meet the strategic requirements of LWaRB. LWaRB has a particular interest in projects located outside of east London as well as those projects that help to bridge the capacity gap in the capital.
A 5 million investment fund for innovative waste solutions, giving London the opportunity to showcase technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells, gas to grid, and waste derived transport fuels. LWaRB says it will be flexible in its approach to distributing funding including loans or equity investment, depending on project requirements. As well as providing funding, this programme will build partnerships with various parties such as technology providers, off-takers and fuel suppliers.

Announcing the launch, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: I want London to find innovative ways to manage our rubbish in the cleanest, greenest ways possible.

This is a challenge for all major cities and this funding pot helps London to lead the way in finding smart solutions to the problem of rubbish, whilst also creating jobs and attracting investment.

James Cleverly, the chair of LWaRB, added: LWaRB is entering an exciting phase. Having established ourselves in the market, LWaRB now has a tighter focus on the types of projects that we will support. In addition, the Board is looking forward to investing in some ground-breaking waste technologies to showcase in the capital.

Funding process

The funding allocation process will involve expressions of interest (EOI) being given an initial assessment by the Board to identify projects that meet its selection criteria. They will then be asked for more in-depth information before going through a Project Health Check where projects are given a detailed review covering factors such as financing, site and technology.

Projects which get through this stage are then put in an infrastructure pool where they are ready for business case development. EOI must be submitted by September 30 2011.

Those to receive funding from earlier allocations made by the LWaRB include a gasification facility in Dagenham, an anaerobic digestion plant in Dagenham and a waste-to-fuel facility in Bexley.