The Low Carbon Communities Challenge (LCCC), a Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) programme, provided financial and advisory support to 22 communities and aimed to test community-scale implementation of low carbon technologies alongside community engagement and behaviour change initiatives.

The programme was designed to inform energy efficiency and low carbon generation policies. It was funded by DECC, the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Northern Ireland), the Welsh Assembly, and the Sciencewise Expert Resource Centre (Sciencewise-ERC).

Data collection methods included 18 visits to local projects teams and interviews with 14 stakeholders, including members of the delivery team, steering group, DECC policymakers and other representatives from the community sector and the wider research community.

Local project teams described a number of new activities and groups forming as a result of the LCCC delivery (e.g. a community shop, a revived parish council, multiple residents’ associations, a solar buying club and a community cinema) and multiple positive partnerships forming with public bodies, academic organisations and the private sector.

This programme was delivered by Dialogue by Design and was evaluated by OPM.