Communities across the country will benefit from money to spend on cutting carbon emissions and saving on energy bills.

The first communities to receive money from Labour’s “Low Carbon Communities Challenge” have been announced. Communities in Norfolk, Isle of Wight, London, Nottinghamshire, Pembrokeshire, Cheshire, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and Devon will share part of the £10m fund.

The areas will spend their portion on projects such as solar panels and wind turbines, insulating homes, low carbon heating systems and electric car charging points.

The fund will not only cut carbon emissions and save money on energy bills, but also create income for the communities through Labour’s clean energy cashback scheme.

Another ten communities will benefit in the next phase of the challenge.

Labour's Energy Minister Joan Ruddock said:

“We’ve had more than 300 communities register their interest with the Low Carbon Communities Challenge, so there’s a real appetite out there to save energy to help tackle global warming and save money on fuel bills.

The ten winning projects will now spend the money on things like community wind turbines, solar panels, heat pumps, insulation or green transport projects to cut emissions.”