Salix vs PSDS vs CIF in 2026: which is still open?

Correction, 7 October 2026: earlier versions of this guide, and of this site, presented a “Salix Decarbonisation Loan” as the default funding route for English state schools. No such loan is open to English schools, and we have rewritten this page accordingly.

The short version

School business managers asking “which pot pays for our solar?” usually meet three names: Salix, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) and the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF). As of October 2026 their status for an English school is very different from what most of the web still says.

Why so much advice still says “Salix loan”

Salix has run public-sector energy-efficiency loan schemes in the past, and a great deal of school solar copy — this site’s included, until this month — was written as if an interest-free, savings-repaid loan were still the standard route. Check the current position for yourself on Salix’s England page: it lists grant programmes, not loans. The zero-interest public-sector loans Salix runs today are in Scotland — the Scottish Public Sector Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme and the Scotland Recycling Fund, which lists schools among eligible applicants through their local authority or governing body. Wales has the Wales Funding Programme, which lends at a fixed rate set at the government borrowing rate. Our page on Salix funding for schools sets out what is open in each nation.

PSDS: closed, and not coming back in its current form

PSDS Phase 4 opened in mid-October 2024 and closed to new applications in November 2024. The Department for Education’s CIF guidance for 2026 to 2027 is blunt about what comes next: “Following the 2025 Spending Review, the government has made the decision to commit no further investment for the PSDS beyond currently awarded projects.” If a proposal still offers to “help with your PSDS bid”, it was written for a scheme that no longer takes bids.

CIF: open, but it is a condition fund

The Condition Improvement Fund is the one national route still open, and it is easy to misread. To bid for 2026 to 2027 a school had to be, at the start of September 2025, one of the following:

• a stand-alone academy;
• a school in a multi-academy trust with fewer than five schools or fewer than 3,000 pupils;
• a voluntary aided school in a VA body or group under the same thresholds (VA schools contribute at least 10%);
• a sixth-form college.

Larger trusts and local authorities receive School Condition Allocation instead. CIF’s priorities are condition-led, and the guidance warns that energy-efficiency works which do not address high-need condition issues “are unlikely to be successful”. Solar appears in the guidance as an example of evidence for the environmental-sustainability part of the score, not as a project type in its own right. In practice that means a CIF bid succeeds on the roof, the boiler or the compliance problem, and solar can be designed in alongside — not that CIF will fund a solar array on a sound roof. We look at that in more detail in whether a CIF bid can pay for school solar.

What actually funds most school solar now

• The school’s or trust’s own capital — devolved formula capital, trust reserves or a planned condition budget. It gives the best long-run return.
• A power purchase agreement (PPA) — a third party funds and owns the panels and the school buys the electricity. From 15 July 2026 any PPA on the school estate has to use the DfE’s PPA and land-lease templates, which had not been published by early October 2026. See PPAs and community energy for schools.
• Great British Energy — 245 schools and colleges had government-funded solar by July 2026, but government selects the schools. See Great British Energy solar for schools.

A quick decision guide

• Maintained school: talk to the local authority about capital, and compare it with a PPA. There is no Salix loan to apply for.
• Stand-alone academy or small trust with a failing roof: a CIF bid built on the roof, with solar designed in.
• Larger trust: School Condition Allocation and trust reserves, phased across the estate.
• Independent school: reserves, bonds or a PPA.
• Scotland or Wales: the devolved public-sector loan schemes, through your local authority.

Whatever the route, get the numbers from your own half-hourly meter data first — our school solar cost guide shows how to sense-check a quote.