Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living Programme has provided funding and support to nearly 300 businesses and local authorities to adopt innovations to help their places prosper from the shift to net zero.

This podcast episode draws on learnings from the Net Zero Living Programme, and the recent publication Investing in Places (Investing in Places: Learnings for local net zero planning - Innovate UK Business Connect)

For this episode, Poppy Maltby, Associate Director at Regen, is joined by:

· Christine Zhou, Executive Director, Global Head of Built Environment Finance, Bankers without Boundaries

· Louise Wilson - co-founder & joint managing director at Abundance Investment

We hear about how the Net Zero Living Programme worked with local authorities to build their understanding and confidence to attract private sector investment into their projects and places.

Louise and Christine explore the different forms, functions and drivers of finance that can be used in place based initiatives, and how to tackle some of the challenges faced by local areas in bringing private sector finance into places via local authorities and their partners.

For this episode, Poppy Maltby, Associate Director at Regen, is joined by:

Fraser Stewart, Great British Energy's Head of Local Energy Strategy

Charlotte Norton, Associate Director within the Cities and Regions team at the Carbon Trust

Alex Templeton - From the Net Zero Living project in Essex, and Director of Community Infrastructure Group CIC

Local and community energy projects are a critical part of securing a just energy transition, ensuring all places can capitalise on the clean energy transition.

This episode explores the Net Zero Living Programme's insights in community energy, including lessons from Essex's new community interest company, to understand how local authorities and other stakeholders can support and grow the sector.

Net Zero Living has provided funding and support to nearly 300 businesses and local authorities to adopt innovations to help their places prosper from the shift to net zero.

This podcast episode draws on learnings from the Net Zero Living programme, and the recent publications of retrofit insights from the programme in Better Warmer Homes.

For this episode, Poppy Maltby, Head of Local Energy at Regen, is joined by:

Kate Spalding from Fife Council's Climate Change and Zero Waste Team

David Pierpoint, CEO of the Retrofit Academy.

We hear about the learnings from Fife Council's Net Zero Living programme which delivered a skills gap analysis for the region alongside a delivery plan to guide future skills development.

Kate and David also reflect on challenges facing local retrofit supply chains, policies that can help overcome these challenges, and the opportunities that exist for local retrofit markets for delivering better, warmer homes.