Outstanding year for Community Grants FundING

The year 2025-26 has been a great year for Low Carbon Hub’s Community Grants Fund with the highest number of grants awarded since our grants fund began. 

As the present financial year comes to a close, we are delighted to award a total of £31,500 to our community group members through our large and small grants programme.

Our 51 community groups are a vital part of Low Carbon Hub’s work across Oxfordshire and continue to be inspirational in tackling climate change. We appreciate just how much commitment, creativity, and determination it takes to run and sustain a thriving community group. 

That’s why we think one of the most rewarding ways to share the community benefit that comes from the profits generated from our 56 renewable energy installations, is to offer our groups financial support through the Community Grants Fund to help organise events and community energy activities.

All community group members of Low Carbon Hub can apply for a large grant of up to £5,000 once a year in a competitive process. The applications are reviewed and selected by the Impact Committee, consisting of members of Low Carbin Hub’s board of directors, and external partners from CAG Oxfordshire and the County Council Retrofit team. 

We are thrilled to support five of our community groups, in this round of applications, with large grants that will help with projects to generate renewable energy, make buildings and homes more energy efficient, and develop sustainable transport solutions. There is a rich diversity of projects, but all share a common ethos of engaging their communities by sharing knowledge, information and skills and learning from each other. 

Large Grants awarded 2025-2026 

Hardwick Community Energy – ‘Draughtbusting for All’

Building on the success of last year’s grant, Hardwick Community Energy are continuing to provide a small team of Draughtbusters to carry out simple energy efficient measures to 27 old and difficult to heat cottages on the Hardwick Country Estate. The cottages are let to tenants at affordable rents and increasing the energy performance of the houses and improving the level of comfort for the residents has also helped to reduce their energy bills. 

The work on the windows and doors of the homes has been carried out to an exceptional standard, and the tenants are delighted with the results. The estate is in the process of transferring into community ownership.  

Rose Hill & Iffley Low Carbon: ‘Affordable Warmth for All’

The Affordable Warmth for All project aims to increase home energy efficiency in Rose Hill and the surrounding neighbourhoods by creating friendly home energy advice sessions based around a series of free community lunches.  

Residents will be able to find information on how to book a free home energy assessment and advice on grant funding, as well as help with installing simple low-cost measures from a team of Draughtbusters. The team will work in partnership with local advice centres. 

Green TEA: ‘Energy Saving Homes and Housewarming’

Following on from information sharing events with LCON / RHILC Energy Saving Homes and Housewarming project teams. 

Green TEA plan to run an Energy Saving Homes event and a series of Housewarming workshops in the Eynsham area. They’ll begin by recruiting residents who have carried out a range of home energy efficiency measures, to open their homes to visitors during Oxford Open Homes weekend in September.  The aim is to encourage residents to share their knowledge and experience and for visitors to feel comfortable to ask questions.  

They are also planning to deliver a series of workshops inspired by Low Carbon Oxford North’s (LCON’s) successful Housewarming project, which aims to demystify the sometimes overwhelming amount of complicated information on sustainable technologies.  

Green TEA attended LCON’s recent Housewarming evenings and will be delivering the workshops themselves in Eynsham in 2027. 

First and Last Mile CIC: ‘Community Transport Saturday Service Trial’

First and Last Mile community transport group are trialling a Saturday minibus service, with wheelchair access, to connect villages in West Oxfordshire with no public transport options at weekends, with the towns of Eynsham, Witney and Oxford.  

First & Last Mile community buses are a popular service, and the weekend trial will be particularly useful for young people, ensuring that they are not excluded from attending sports events and Saturday activities due to lack of transport. 

Sustainable Kirtlington: Solar PV for the Kirtlington Community Shop and Cafe 

Following the loss of their village shop, Sustainable Kirtlington have formed a Community Benefit Society to develop an ambitious project to build a community shop & cafe near to the existing village hall. Plans are in place to make the building as insulated and sustainable as possible, and the grant will provide funds towards a rooftop solar PV array and two 5 kwh batteries.  

The shop and cafe have the support of the wider community and over 100 people have already registered interest in helping to run the facility.