South West Water fund could pay Cornwall firms to save water

You might run a café, a salon or a dairy farm. If there’s a way your business could use less mains water, there could be money to help you do it.

South West Water is offering funding to businesses through its Water Efficiency Business Innovation Fund. It’s aimed at projects that deliver savings you can measure.

It’s open to businesses of any size in Cornwall and Devon. The water company lists cafés, hairdressers, farms and factories as examples of the kinds of firms that could be eligible.

What sort of projects count?

The fund is looking for ideas that cut how much tap water a business draws from the mains. Examples given include:

• collecting and using rainwater
• improving washing processes in food, drink, laundry or manufacturing
• treating wastewater so it can be reused on site
• bringing in new technology that reduces demand for mains water

Other ideas are welcome too. A project doesn’t have to be a first of its kind, and it can be a first for your own business. As the company puts it, “If it saves water, we want to hear about it.”

Selected projects may also be match-funded.

How the funding is judged

Every project has to pass two tests.

The first is that it saves mains water now, with a lasting reduction measured in litres per day.

The second is cost. The amount of funding requested, divided by the litres saved each day, has to come in under 80p.

Two worked examples

South West Water gives two examples on its fund page:

• A £5,000 project asking for £3,000 from the fund and saving 3,800 litres a day works out at 79p per litre per day. That qualifies.
• A £25,000 project asking for £15,000 and saving 20,000 litres a day works out at 75p per litre per day. That also qualifies.

No overall fund size or maximum grant is listed.

How to apply

Applications are open all year round. A judging panel meets monthly, and funding is awarded each month until the budget runs out. After that, no more applications will be considered, though the fund could be relaunched if more money is allocated. South West Water says its website will show when the cap is reached, or if the fund is extended or stopped.

Once an application is in, it goes through eligibility, financial and due diligence checks before an internal panel assesses it against the criteria. Successful businesses are sent an agreement with terms and conditions, and it has to be signed before any money is paid out.

Full details and the application form are on the Water Efficiency Business Innovation Fund page.

Projects that get funding may end up featured as case studies on the South West Water website and social media.