Created: 19th June, 2025
Robert joined Barker in 2002 and is a Partner based in our Braintree office. A Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, he has over 20 years’ experience of all core building surveying services and provides strategic estates advice to key accounts in the education, commercial, ecclesiastical and public sectors.
An education specialist, he provides the following services: estates and energy strategy, asset management planning, project management and capital funding applications.
Robert works closely with clients to plan and implement energy efficiency and sustainability strategies to save money, reduce carbon emissions and meet ESG objectives.
As a RICS Certified Historic Buildings Professional he provides conservation consultancy for clients with listed and historic buildings.
Robert is an experienced APC Assessor and Chairman and is also an external examiner for Anglia Ruskin University
As a Partner Robert leads the Business Development and Marketing function at Barker, builds relationships with key sector bodies and helps steer the strategic growth of the company.
Email: rgould@barker-associates.co.uk
Tel: 01279 648057
The recent cancellation of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) and its associated Low Carbon Skills Fund (LCSF) has sent ripples through local authorities, education institutions, NHS trusts and other public bodies. Understandably so, these funds represented some of the most significant capital available for decarbonisation projects in recent years.
But while headlines may mourn the loss, those of us in the trenches of public sector property planning might quietly admit a more nuanced reality: perhaps it’s time to let go of what wasn’t working and start investing in what does.
Following its inception as a wide-ranging economic stimulus package in the post-COVID era, PSDS aimed to accelerate decarbonisation by supporting energy-efficient, low-carbon heat upgrades across public sector estates. The intention was right, the delivery less so.
Over successive phases, the scheme became increasingly inaccessible, especially to smaller public sector bodies such as individual academies or single-site MATs. While well-resourced organisations with full-time energy teams and estates specialists could prepare successful bids, the majority were effectively locked out.
Applications were complex, often requiring detailed technical studies and commercial modelling up front without a guarantee of funding. Many schools simply lacked the internal capacity or capital to engage.
A major structural flaw was its disconnect from sector-specific funding streams. While PSDS was administered centrally via the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), education projects still depended heavily on programmes like the DfE’s Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) for broader capital needs.
This led to a funding fragmentation problem. Many schools found themselves forced to choose between maintaining buildings or decarbonising them, not both. Integration between funding pots never materialised, and some MATs were excluded from both.
Moreover, the eligibility criteria failed to keep pace with the market. Projects relying solely on 100% low-carbon heat solutions, such as air source heat pumps, were prioritised even in settings where a hybrid or bivalent system would have delivered more cost-effective and technically robust outcomes. Typically, an academy had to contribute around 50% of project costs on projects where they could have done a gas-fired boiler replacement at 3-4 times less than the contribution alone. The reality was that PSDS would only fund the Air Source Heat Pumps, everything required on distribution and emitter replacement had to be funded by the academies.
This dogmatic focus often led to technically compliant but operationally flawed solutions: carbon savings were achieved, but at a significant cost to the organisation through higher energy bills or increased maintenance.
The biggest beneficiaries of PSDS were, unsurprisingly, the largest organisations; those with in-house engineers, consultants, and energy strategists who could act fast and draft compelling bids. But delivery? That’s a different story.
Too often, funding was awarded to bodies without fully developed plans, creating a pipeline of under-scoped, over-ambitious or undeliverable projects. The result? Wasted capital, unspent budgets, and disillusionment.
Smaller, better-prepared organisations, especially in education, were sidelined.
While the cancellation of PSDS is arguably overdue, the loss of the Low Carbon Skills Fund (LCSF) is genuinely more concerning.
LCSF provided grant funding for Heat Decarbonisation Plans (HDPs), feasibility studies, and early-stage project scoping – resources vital for public sector organisations to make informed investment decisions. Without this foundation, many schools will simply be unable to even begin the journey.
We’ve already covered this in detail in our previous article, but in short, removing funding for preparation is like trying to build a house without an architect. It puts long-term progress at serious risk.
With PSDS now shelved, what’s next?
The good news is that a more intelligent approach is within reach. Rather than relying on centrally administered, one-size-fits-all pots, we need sector-specific, joined-up funding strategies.
The Net Zero Accelerator Programme is a promising start. It is designed to work in partnership with DfE and other agencies like Great British Energy to target the right interventions in the right places. These growing collaborations could finally bring scale and coordination to public sector decarbonisation.
But we can’t wait for a perfect policy. The challenge and opportunity lie in what schools and public sector bodies can do right now.
Even without PSDS or LCSF, there are actionable, affordable and effective steps organisations can take today. Many of these are low-cost or even self-financing via spend-to-save models.
Here are the five top priorities:
These actions don’t need grants. They need leadership.
It’s tempting to view the end of PSDS as a blow to public sector decarbonisation. But that would be missing the point.
In truth, the scheme had outlived its usefulness and become a barrier to the very outcomes it was designed to achieve. Its cancellation creates space for a new model – one that’s aligned to sector needs, informed by technical reality, and focused on outcomes rather than optics.
We now have a chance to rebuild a smarter funding landscape – one that supports integrated planning, realistic delivery, and long-term sustainability.
The path to Net Zero isn’t just about grants. It’s about doing the right things, in the right order, for the right reasons.
And that work starts now.
Not sure what to do next after the cancellation of LCSF and PSDS?
Speak to a member of our sustainability team to get guidance on your next steps.