Local authorities achieving net zero

Setting aside the question of whether achieving net zero is sufficiently ambitious – and whether 2050 is sufficiently soon enough – to combat the ravages of climate change, achieving that goal depends on all elements of UK business and society coming together to achieve different aspects of the work that is needed to achieve net zero. Local authorities across the country have declared ‘climate emergencies’ over recent years in response to the increasingly clear and ever-present dangers of climate change. But for every council with a success story, there is another being criticised for declaring a climate emergency but then failing to take any meaningful action.

The Skidmore Review (mission zero: independent review of net zero), which published its final review in January, contains a number of overarching missions, with recommendations for action under each. One most pertinent to local authorities is the mission to ‘create a net zero local big bang’. The review recognised there is ‘no clear framework on local net zero action, and no statutory duty’.  A core recommendation, therefore, to shift from this position is the introduction of a statutory duty for local authorities to take account of the UK’s net zero targets, based on a clear framework of local roles and responsibilities. A second is to simplify the currently complicated net zero funding landscape – specifically the review recommends that by the next spending review, central government should ‘simplify the net zero funding landscape for all local authorities… [including] consolidating different funding pots, reducing competitive bidding processes, giving longer lead-in times where bidding remains and providing funding over the medium- rather than the short-term’.

Progress on these and other recommendations is to be welcomed, and there is much to be said in favour of both simplifying the funding landscape and creating a clear legislative framework which would underpin net zero targets and compel local authorities to take a more wholesale and holistic approach to climate change. But in the meantime, how does a local authority navigate the myriad funding pots that might be available to them? Here is just a taste of what is going on presently:

• The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, currently at phase 3, is run by the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), now the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).  Phase 3b allocated £635m of funding across single and multi-year projects (£402m for 2023/2024 and £233m for 2024/2025).
• The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), also administered by DESNZ, is currently at wave 2 and offers £3.8bn worth of funding over ten years to help social landlords with the decarbonisation of their housing stock. The SHDF aims to upgrade a significant amount of social housing in England to EPC band C standard. Wave 2.1 is currently ongoing, with a potential wave 2.2 if insufficient funding is distributed through wave 2.1.
• For heat networks there is the Green Heat Network Fund (a three-year £288m capital grant fund to support the construction of new low and zero-carbon heat networks, and retrofitting and expansion of existing heat networks) and the Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (funding existing/operational district heating networks and communal heating systems).

For electric vehicles, there is the EV infrastructure grant and the Workplace Charging scheme – two schemes which aim to encourage the use of electric vehicles in the UK, with funding available for companies, charities and parts of the public sector.

The need for simplification and rationalisation of the funding streams is immediately clear. And a wider conversation is then needed about what a positive statutory duty on local authorities would look like – binding, clear and meaningful (with no opportunity to create a tick box exercise without true action), backed by strong climate science building in adaptation and resilience alongside mitigation and prevention. And then, recognising that these recommendations are two sides of a coin, a robust discussion about how that statutory duty and the action underpinning it is to be funded, so that local authorities can act comprehensively and at pace.

If you would like more information on local authorities achieving net zero, please contact Gayle Monk.

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