We are South East London Community Energy

View this email in your browser

Sun-sational!

£250,000 raised and solar panels already being installed...

We are active on social media so please give a like or follow.

Enlightened investors have made SELCE's solar panel project a reality.

Installers were up on the roofs of Horniman, Mulgrave and Ashmead primary schools last week making preparations for our first solar arrays.

138 investors join SELCE community

We can’t think of a better way to end 2015 than by marking the success of our first share offer. We’re hugely appreciative of the vision and pioneering spirit shown by everyone who has contributed to making SELCE’s solar project a reality. 

Over the past year we’ve had some nail-biting moments as we worked our way through the complex legal process of bringing five different parties together (councils, school governors, installers, solicitors and SELCE itself)  - against extremely tight deadlines and an ever-changing political landscape.

However, thanks to the 138 investors who have joined the SELCE community, we have hit our funding target of £250,000. And since the close of the share offer in November, we haven’t wasted any time. Solar panels are now being installed on three of our partner schools and a fourth array is set to go up early in the new year.

EIS tax relief clarification: If you are a SELCE shareholder, you may be wondering how to claim Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax relief. As you may recall, SELCE has received assurance from the HMRC that SELCE shareholders will be able to claim income tax relief in the year of the investment equal to 30% of the value of their qualifying investment.   Shareholders won’t be able to claim the tax relief until SELCE has been trading for four months. From the perspective of the HMRC, trading does not begin until the first installation is complete and we begin generating solar electricity. Since the first installations were completed just before the end of 2015, we can't begin the process of applying for tax relief until the end of April/May.   Applying for EIS doesn’t have to be a hassle  - but it does involve a fairly lengthy bureaucratic process for SELCE. You don’t need to do anything until we send you an EIS3 form and this is likely to be in May 2016.   The easiest way for you to claim your EIS tax relief is to submit a tax return (this is not as complicated as it sounds). You will generally be eligible for the tax relief in the tax year that the shares were issued (2015-16). To submit a tax return for the 2015-16 year, you need to register online by October 2016 and complete the self-assessment by January 2017.   We will send out more detailed guidance once we have the EIS3 forms ready for distribution. As with any tax process, there are many subtleties and options that you can investigate. Please note we are not financial advisors and can't provide advice about your particular situation. However we will do our best to support you with the process. For more information, please go to:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-enterprise-investment-scheme-introduction   Tips for saving money on your energy bills: If you’re thinking about switching to a better energy deal in the new year, you might want to use SELCE’s price comparison site. Our experience as energy advisors suggests that, if you haven’t switched in the last 12 months, doing so will almost certainly save you around £200.

The webpage provides quotes from all Ofgem Confidence Code approved energy providers and each time someone uses the site to move to a new company, SELCE receives a donation.  (It would be great if you could send the link to your friends and family as well). This income will go towards our fuel poverty work  and  we will be giving you an update on the co-operative’s fuel poverty initiatives in the next newsletter.

You can go directly to our Ofgem Approved price comparison site here: SELCE energy comparison page

For members living in London, the Big London Energy Switch is now on. If you join a local council scheme, you can save money on your bills through ‘collective bargaining’ with other energy users in your area.

More details can be found here: Big London Energy Switch

Calling all Deptfordians and Greenwich-ites If you shop at Waitrose on New Capital Quay (just off Creek Road) please take a minute for vote for us. SELCE has been selected as one of three community organisations that will be in the running for a cash donation during the supermarket's 'Community Matters' initiative. The more votes we get, the bigger the donation.

When you check out, please ask for a green token and post it in SELCE's box in the Community Matters section of the store. Votes for us can only be made during the month of January. To borrow a supermarket slogan, 'every little helps'!

Full details can be found on the Waitrose website here: http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/inspiration/community_matters.html

SELCE questionnaire: Meanwhile, if you haven’t already done so, it would be really appreciated if you could complete the questionnaire we recently sent you. Your feedback will provide us with vital information on how best to meet our members’ expectations and how we should shape our renewable energy and fuel poverty work in the future. The questionnaire for shareholders can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SELCEEISUCEFSurvey

After a few weeks’ rest, SELCE will be up and running again in 2016 and getting ready for the launch of our second share offer. We’re aiming to have everything in place by the end of the second quarter. We’ll keep you posted on our progress. In the meantime, we wish you happy holidays and lots of fun in the year to come.

Many thanks to all our wonderful funders, members, volunteers and supporters

We would particularly like to give big thanks to all the individuals and organisations who have provided invaluable support along the way. If we listed everyone who had stuck their neck out on our behalf and contributed something to the project the list would take up several pages. But special mention must go to (in no particular order): The team at GCDA who have supported SELCE from the beginning at no charge; Chris Benbow and Henry Sheldon from Ashurst LLP who have provided excellent legal representation on a pro-bono basis without this it would not have been possible; all of the officers at Lewisham Council and Royal Greenwich who have, in various ways, gone above and beyond the call of duty and, in particular, Martin O’Brien (Lewisham) and Heather Yedigarov (Royal Greenwich), and the legal and property teams.  All the members of staff at our partner schools with particular thanks to Julie Loftstadd, Verity Wakelium (Horniman School), Sean O’Flynn, Julia Costello, Angelo Lione (Ashmead School), David Dixon, Dermot Hughes (Mulgrave School), Mark Dale Emberton, Caroline O’Shea (Charlton Park Academy), to our installers GHG Energy who have in the past few days battled against fierce winds and driving rain to complete the installation and consistently provided excellent advice. Thanks also to our local politicians and Mayors, in particular Mayor Steve Bullock, Cllr Paul Upex (Lewisham) and to Mayor Norman Adams, Cllrs John Fahy and Harpinder Singh (Royal Greenwich); to those organisations who supported us in particular Alex Germanis (Pure Leapfrog), Harriet Sansom (CSE), Will Cottrell (Brighton Energy Coop), Benn Dodd (The Community Shares Unit), and the team at Coops London. To all those organisations that helped us to spread the word about our share offer in particular thanks to 10:10, SE2, Energy Saving Trust, Project Dirt, Demand Energy Equality, We Care, The Greenwich Green Party, Quaker Peace and Justice; all the Directors, Advisors, Volunteers of SELCE (you know who you are) who have pulled together as a team and together contributed over 4500 hours of volunteering. Our funders of DECC, The EBICO Trust, M&S Energy, CAB Energy Best Deal and The Chesshire Lehmann Fund. Also, our energy advice cafe venues at Thte Green Man Community Hub, home of Phoenix Community Housing, The Forum at Greenwich and Woolwich Common Community Centre.  

Last, but by no means least thanks to you all our members and supporters. We are looking forward to a healthier, wealthier and greener new year.

www.SELCE.org.uk

Copyright © 2015 South East London Community Energy, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is: SELCE, c/o GCDA, Unit 6, Greenwich Centre Business Park, 53 Norman Road, London SE10 9QF Tel: 020 8269-4882 Email: info@selce.org.uk

unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

|IF:REWARDS| |HTML:REWARDS| |END:IF|