Select Committee on Environmental Audit Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by Defra

INTRODUCTION

  1.  The UK Government and devolved administrations believe that climate change is one of the greatest long-term challenges facing the world today. Avoiding dangerous climate change and adapting to unavoidable climate change is a huge undertaking that requires more pronounced and continuing cuts in emissions and more co-ordinated and concerted effort on adaptation.

  2.  The UK is on track to meet, and exceed, its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2008-12. The UK Government and devolved administrations recognise that they must continue to show leadership domestically and internationally on mitigation and adaptation.

  3.  The UK Government, working with the devolved administrations has put forward a Climate Change Bill which would put into statute UK targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, through domestic and international action, to 26-32% below 1990 levels by 2020 and by at least 60% by 2050. It will introduce five year carbon budgets and create the Committee on Climate Change to provide advice to the Government. The Bill also contains key provisions on adaptation, including commitments for five yearly assessments of risk to the UK and to publish a programme of action to tackle those risks.

  4.  In meeting our climate change goals the UK Government recognises that action by local authorities, regional bodies and devolved administrations will be crucial in helping to ensure that the UK meets its objectives. Establishing the correct frameworks to ensure that all levels of Government are able to reduce emissions and adapt to the climatic changes we are already experiencing in addition to those forecast for the future is a key priority for the UK Government.

  5.  The UK's climate change strategy is heavily influenced by the scope and coverage of the constitutional framework. The UK Government retains overall responsibility for the Kyoto Protocol target and for putting in place a programme to deliver it. However, many of the policies implementing the climate change strategy are devolved matters. The devolution settlements, ie the Scotland Act 1998 and the Government of Wales Act 2006, provide the devolved administrations with a power to legislate in those areas which have been devolved. In such areas, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly have the legislative competence to introduce their own policies and measures. The three devolution settlements are different, with each devolved administration having a distinct set of responsibilities, and powers to act, to tackle climate change.

  6.  This memorandum has been jointly developed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Communities and Local Government (CLG) with input from Department for Business and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the Department for Transport (DfT). It is understood that the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are considering submitting separate evidence to the inquiry. Views expressed in the rest of this memorandum on the role of local and regional bodies refer to policy in England and therefore may not necessarily represent those views and policies of the Devolved Administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

How can central government best support and encourage local authorities, regional government and devolved administrations to take action on mitigation and adaptation, and other climate change related areas like waste and transport? What funding, powers, and structures are required to improve joined up delivery of climate change policy at all levels of government?

Is there clarity about the role played by local authorities, regional governments and devolved administrations in tackling climate change? How can their actions be coordinated and monitored? How can the accountability and transparency of the response at a local level be improved? How effective has the Nottingham Declaration process been?

What, if anything, needs to be changed in the framework governing the actions of devolved administrations, regional government and local authorities? For example, does there need to be a more explicit reference to climate change in the local government performance framework and will the new performance indicators on climate change be enough to stimulate action?

  7.  UK Government supports local and regional bodies and the devolved administrations to take action on climate change through setting the overall framework for action, through setting out the policies and measures to meet UK goals and targets (and encouraging action in those areas that are devolved) and through providing incentives and encouragement for local action.

  8.  The 2006 UK Climate Change Programme was developed by the UK Government and devolved administrations in partnership and includes specific chapters setting out the action being undertaken in each devolved administrations. The 2007 Energy White Paper provides further UK policy proposals in relation to energy. These documents therefore cover measures relating to action in both reserved and devolved policy areas; some measures apply throughout the UK whilst others only within the territory of a devolved administration. Current action by the devolved administrations (in devolved policy areas) is set out in the following: Scotland's Climate Change Programme,[1] the One Wales[2] agreement, and the Northern Ireland Sustainable Development Strategy (2006).[3]

Action by Local Authorities in England

  9.  While the UK Government and the devolved administrations have responsibility for setting the overall strategy for tackling climate change, establishing the right policy framework and ensuring that other policies do not cut across climate change and sustainable development objectives, local authorities have a special status as local, directly elected bodies.

  10.  Local authorities in England are uniquely placed to provide vision and leadership to local communities, raise awareness and help change behaviours. They can reflect the issue in: Sustainable Community Strategies; the discharge of their responsibilities on waste, local transport, housing, planning, fuel poverty and enforcement of building regulations; and in engaging and mobilising business, industry, communities and individuals to address the issue in the workplace and at home. Through actions on their own estate and working with communities they can have significant influence over emissions in their local areas.

  11.  English local authorities are encouraged to sign the Nottingham Declaration on climate change and to work with the UK Government to contribute, at a local level, to the delivery of the UK Climate Change Programme and to the achievement of the UK's emissions reduction targets. Some local authorities have adopted targets to help guide the action that they are taking. Others have participated in the Carbon Trust's Local Authority Carbon Management Programme, which requires them to set targets and to adopt a strategy for reducing emissions under the control of the local authority such as buildings, vehicle fleets, street lighting and landfill sites.

  12.  Some local authorities are already making a significant reduction in carbon emissions but all local authorities could do more to mitigate against and adapt to the effects of climate change, with the right support. The policies outlined in the UK Climate Change Programme 2006[4] and the Local Government White Paper[5] have or will give local authorities in England new opportunities to put climate change at the heart of their local priorities, and to lead action to make a difference to the local area, the country and the planet. Defra also provides funding to UKCIP, which provides advice and support to private and public sector organisations in assessing their vulnerability to climate change so that they can plan their own adaptation strategies.

  13.  The UK Government has recognised the need to help focus and give clarity to the role that local authorities can play. For the first time, indicators to measure the progress of local authorities in England to tackle climate change mitigation, adaptation and fuel poverty will form part of the Local Government Performance framework from April 2008. Progress to reduce emissions, adapt to climatic changes and reduce the incidence of fuel poverty will form part of the Comprehensive Area Assessment from 2009. This sends a clear message to local authorities as to where we expect them to focus their environmental actions—in their own operations and buildings, and as service providers and as leaders of their local communities. Through the performance framework local authority performance on tackling climate change will now be transparent.

  14.  Inclusion of climate change indicators in the performance framework is expected to stimulate further action at a local level. The UK Government and local government in England are also currently negotiating 150 Local Area Agreements where specific performance improvements are agreed for up to 35 national indicators (plus 16 from Department for Children, Schools and Families). Defra is working with Government Offices to ensure that both climate change mitigation and adaptation are properly represented in the agreements.

  15.  The Government is also currently negotiating a number of Multi-Area Agreements for sign-off in June 2008. These are cross-boundary agreements between a number of local authorities and their partners and Government. Their overall objective is to improve economic performance by addressing issues that can be most effectively dealt with at the sub-regional level, and may offer opportunities to address issues such as climate change adaptation and mitigation.

  16.  As recognised by the LGA Commission on Climate Change, it will be important to review how local authorities have responded to the challenge over the next three years. It is currently too early to say if this will see a step change in action by local areas—but it is clear that if local communities acting in partnership prioritise action on climate change, they can begin to have a real impact in mitigating climate change and in adapting to its effects.

  17.  A consultation on the technical definitions of the indicators has recently been concluded by CLG and it is expected that the final handbook of definitions will be published in February for implementation from April 2008. The new climate change indicators in England, subject to technical amendment following the consultation, are as follows.

National Indicator 185: CO2 reduction from Local Authority operations

  18.  The aim of this indicator is to measure the progress of local authorities in reducing emissions from their own operations which are directly under their control and to encourage them to demonstrate leadership on tackling climate change. Measurement against this indicator will require each LA to calculate their carbon emissions from analysis of energy/fuel bills and outsourced services using a prescribed methodology.

  19.  The following sectors are proposed for inclusion in the indicator:

    —  council buildings;

    —  streetlights;

    —  leisure centres;

    —  schools;

    —  council vehicle fleet;

    —  employee commuting; and

    —  social housing.

  20.  The indicator has significant potential to act as a key driver for councils to improve their energy efficiency and the direct linkage between action and performance makes this a transparent indicator. This will be the first time that consistent data on CO2 emissions directly attributable to the activity of Local Authorities will be available for performance monitoring.

National Indicator 186: Per capita reduction in CO2 emissions in the Local Authority area

  21.  The aim of this indicator is to incentivise local authorities to take a lead role within their communities to encourage and facilitate reductions in CO2 emissions across an agreed set of sectors over which they have some influence. Although reductions in community emissions are difficult to attribute directly to local authorities, action by local strategic partnerships led by LAs, should take joint accountability for CO2 reduction in the community, and action by all partners will be critical to the success of initiatives to reduce emissions.

  22.  The indicator will measure emissions in the local area from the following sources:

    —  Business and public sector organisations, including agriculture (excluding those included under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme).

    —  Domestic housing.

    —  Road transport (excluding motorway traffic).

  23.  This data is already captured, analysed and published by UK government to produce area by area carbon emissions per capita. The data for 2005 will be used as the baseline for calculating annual reductions in emissions.

National Indicator: 187 Tackling fuel poverty—people receiving income based benefits living in homes with a low energy efficiency rating

  24.  The indicator measures the proportion of households on income related benefits for whom an energy assessment has been carried out, and whose SAP rating meets the standard (eg, SAP rating of below 30). SAP is being used as a proxy for fuel poverty in households of people claiming income based benefit, given the link between income poverty and fuel poverty.

  25.  The data is intended to be captured as an annual random SAP survey of 1% of households, with an extra question to ascertain any benefit receipt of householders. Local authorities are then asked to complete a desktop exercise, using an agreed formula, which reports on the proportion of households in receipt of income benefits and a low energy efficiency. Good performance is shown by a reduction in the proportion of households with a SAP below 30.

  26.  Local authorities have an important role in tackling fuel poverty and this indicator enables progress to be measured in households most at risk of being in fuel poverty.

National Indicator 188: Adapting to climate change

  27.  The indicator measures progress on assessing and managing climate risks and opportunities, and incorporating appropriate action into local authority strategic planning. The risks and opportunities might include: flooding; heat waves; changing patterns of disease, impact on local ecosystems; and changing demand for and scope to grow new crops; reduction in heating bills and increased tourism.

  28.  We anticipate that a local authority in delivering on the 198 new LAA performance indicators and their 35 performance targets in the medium and long term will have to identify and manage risk related to a changing climate and extreme weather conditions.

  29.  This indicator, together with other climate change indicators will inform the Audit Commission's risk assessment as part of the new CAA process regardless of whether they are included as one of the 35 performance targets. This will provide consistent and external challenge in the public arena improving transparency and accountability at the local level.

The National Improvement and Efficiency Strategy

  30.  The National Improvement and Efficiency Strategy agreed by the UK Government and the LGA has now been published. It will be supported by £384 million which was announced as part of CSR07 comprising Revenue Support Grant top-slice (£114 million) and CLG support (£270 million) for the period 2008-11. The strategy will support councils, as leaders of place, working with their partners, including regional bodies, to deliver outcomes on local priorities including climate change. It supports a devolved approach by placing local government led regional improvement and efficiency partnerships at the heart of delivery support arrangements. RIEPs have a key role in co-ordinating and ensuring that the right support is in place at the right time to deliver improved outcomes for local communities through the LAA.

  31.  In addition, the recent Local Government Finance Settlement included a continued real terms increase in funding which will allow authorities to continue to deliver effective services at an affordable cost, including action to tackle climate change.

The Carbon Reduction Commitment

  32.  The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) is a new mandatory emissions trading scheme, announced in the Energy White Paper 2007, designed to deliver carbon emissions savings of 1.1 MtC/year by 2020. The scheme will cover large, non-energy intensive business and public sector organisations (such as supermarkets, hotel chains, large local authorities, banks and government departments), a sector which accounts for roughly 14 MtC per year, 10% of total UK emissions. We expect that most large top tier authorities will be included in the scheme when it is introduced in January 2010.

Action by regional bodies in England

  33.  Regional bodies work with local authorities and other partners to help coordinate local, sub-regional and regional activity to meet national policy objectives and reduce overlaps to optimise outcomes. Regional bodies have powers and responsibilities that will impact on the long-term shift to a low carbon economy such as the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) responsibility for regional economic development (including Regional Economic Strategies) and the Regional Assemblies responsibility for the regional spatial strategy. Regional bodies also have a clear role to play in adaptation to climate change through supporting local government, identifying and taking forward economic opportunities and co-ordinating activity where adaptation needs to be considered at the regional level.

  34.  Regional Development Agencies are strategic economic development bodies, required to address the priorities identified in the Regional Economic Strategy (RES) for their regions, in a way that also contributes to the delivery of a number of Government's national policy priorities. RDAs provide regional leadership, ensuring that development and delivery of the RES objectives are informed by sustainable development priorities and analysis; deliver carbon reduction in the business sector; champion sustainable design and construction methods; support research and development to help grow innovative businesses and sustainable energy markets and attract global investment in environmental products and services to our regions.

  35.  As part of their role in delivering the priorities identified in the Energy White Paper, RDAs have been given the key role in setting regional energy priorities and take forward initiatives to support national energy policy, for example by committing to set carbon reduction targets in their corporate plans, and to set out which energy technologies they intend to prioritise and support over the next ten years. Regional Development Agencies, through developing and helping implement the Regional Economic Strategies (RES), have taken steps to help address climate change within the regions. For example the South East of England RES, revised in 2006, has a headline target of reducing the rate of increase in the region's ecological footprint, and stabilising and reducing it, by 2016. The West Midlands has just launched the first "low carbon RES".

  36.  RDAs are sponsored by the BERR and receive £2.2 billion funding (FY 2007-08) from six Government Departments (CLG, BERR, Defra, DfES, DCMS and UKTI). This Single Programme (commonly known as the "single pot") gives RDAs the flexibility to address regional priorities (set out in Regional Economic Strategies) in a way that also contributes to the delivery of the current suite of national PSA targets 2005-08. Currently there are overarching targets for: Regional Economic Performance, Sustainable Development and Productivity/Rural Productivity; which contribute to delivery of a range of supplementary PSA targets (for example Skills and Sustainable Farming and Food). The flexibility this has provided to RDAs has enabled them to take action on climate change in ways which are appropriate to their regions.

  37.  From 1 April 2008, RDAs will be tasked to address climate change (mitigation and adaptation) though their contribution to delivery of Government's Regional Economic Performance PSA target, and adhering to cross-cutting principles of sustainable development, and economic opportunities for all.

  38.  Regional Assemblies currently have an important role to play in delivering climate change objectives. Regional Assemblies are voluntary bodies which comprise Councillors from a number of local authorities in their region, and also representatives from social, economic and environmental organisations. They are not directly elected bodies, but are multi-party political bodies. Regional Assemblies act as the voice of their region, bringing together local authorities and stakeholders in order to articulate their regions' needs and priorities. A number of Regional Assemblies have worked in partnership to voluntarily prepare Climate Change Strategies for their regions and to demonstrate leadership on this agenda. They can help ensure a coordinated approach to action on climate change across their regions. Regional Assemblies also have a formal role in scrutinising Regional Development Agencies. A number of Regional Assemblies have used this role to provide constructive challenge and advice to RDAs about how they are addressing sustainable development and climate change.

  39.  In addition to these roles Regional Assemblies are the Regional Planning Bodies and have statutory duties in relation to planning, transport and housing, offering significant opportunities to help deliver on our climate change priorities. Regional Spatial Strategies provide the planning framework for renewables and low carbon development as well as monitoring the progress against these targets. Planning policy is also important for enabling appropriate infrastructure for future energy needs as well as guiding development to reduce the need to travel. Regional Housing Strategies and investment are critical in delivering against fuel poverty targets and carbon emission reductions. Regional Assemblies are also playing a more important role in deciding transport priorities for the region.

The Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration (SNR)

  40.  Looking forward, the SNR published in July 2007, sets out a route map to deliver a progressive agenda of structural and strategic change enabling sustainable economic growth and neighbourhood renewal. One key reform that will impact on the delivery of climate change outcomes at the regional level will be the emergence of single integrated Regional Strategies. These new strategies will encompass the Regional Economic Strategies, Regional Spatial Strategies, Regional Transport Strategies, and Regional Housing Strategies. RDAs will become the Regional Planning Body with a new executive responsibility for developing single integrated regional strategies, working close with local authorities and stakeholders. Regional Assemblies will not continue in their current form. This reform will provide the opportunity to achieve true integration of economic, social and environmental interests at the regional, sub-regional, and local level. The primary aim of the regional strategy is to achieve sustainable development.

The Greater London Authority Act 2007

  41.  The Greater London Authority Act 2007 has strengthened the requirement for London to act on climate change. The Act requires the Mayor of London to produce for London a statutory climate change mitigation and energy strategy and a statutory climate change adaptation strategy. In addition, the Act places a duty on the Mayor and the London Assembly to have regard to climate change and the consequences of climate change, and the Mayor has to have regard to climate change and the consequences of climate change in preparing other statutory Mayoral strategies.

  42.  The Mayor's Climate Change Action Plan was published in February 2007 and sets a target for London of a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025.

Transport policies

  43.  The Department for Transport (DfT) ensures that transport policies balance the increasing demand for travel against protecting the environment and improving quality of life, including action on climate change. DfT have asked local authorities to consider the shared priorities of tackling congestion, delivering accessibility, safer roads and better air quality when setting their local transport plans. Local authorities were also asked to develop a cycling strategy and most have now done so. To support local authorities in delivering more cycling, which can assist with the shared priorities, the Department for Transport set up Cycling England in 2005 who provide free expert advice to local authorities.

  44.  The Department has also encouraged local authorities to consider the use of smarter choices in their local transport plans—soft measures to encourage greater use of public transport and increases in walking and cycling and reduce car use. The Department's Sustainable Travel Towns initiative is trialling the use of smarter choices on a large scale across Darlington, Peterborough and Worcester to see what effect they can have. A key element has been the use of Individualised Travel Marketing where households are contacted and given information on local travel options so that they can make better informed voluntary travel choices. This has shown startling results with a 10% reduction in car trips and 20% increase in walking, 30% increase in cycling and 16% increase in bus use across a total target population of around 180,000. The UK Government hopes to see more local authorities to make use of smarter choices over the coming years.

  45.  DfT is also emphasising the need for climate change adaptation to be integrated into transport policy at all levels, in terms of identifying both the biggest risks and the most cost-effective remedies. This builds on work being carried out, for example, by the Highways Agency to identify and address the climate change risks to strategic roads. In setting aims for Local Transport Plans it is important that local authorities consider possible climate change impacts such as drier summers and wetter winters which could increase instances of subsidence, damaging infrastructure and leading to increased maintenance costs. Increased flood risk should also be considered when planning new transport infrastructure, as should measures, for example, to increase green space and tree cover, which can help to reduce the heat island effect and surface run-off.

The Waste Strategy

  46.  The Waste Strategy for England 2007[6] set out the vision, objectives and plans for managing waste. The overall impact of this strategy is expected to be an annual net reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions from waste management of at least 9.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year in 2020 compared to 2006 (equivalent to annual use of around 3 million cars). The additional greenhouse gas emissions reductions result from an increase in diversion of waste from landfill of around 25 million tonnes of waste per annum. These benefits will be further boosted by significant extra greenhouse gas benefits from the waste prevention measures in the strategy.

  47.  Changing our waste management practices has already made waste management a more complex task. As waste is increasingly treated as a resource, a much wider range of actions by a larger range of players is required but these actions need to be coordinated. Local government and regional bodies have a vital role in providing advice and services to business and householders and developing partnership working. They need the right structures, tools and support to do their job. The Government is:

    —  strengthening the ability of local authorities in two-tier areas to work together and encouraged partnership working between local authorities through: new powers in the current Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill; use of Local Area Agreements; and the new local government performance framework—resulting in better, more cost effective local services;

    —  establishing a new local performance package for local authorities to support delivery of the Government's waste outcomes;

    —  encouraging local authorities to take on a wider role (in partnerships) to help local (particularly smaller) businesses reduce and recycle their waste with cost savings through more integrated management of different waste streams; and

    —  encouraging the Regional Development Agencies and other regional bodies to coordinate business waste and resource management in partnership with local authorities and third sector organisations.

  48.  Over the summer, the Government consulted on proposals to allow local authorities to introduce incentive schemes to promote recycling and reducing household waste. 80.5% of respondents who addressed this question thought authorities should have the power to introduce financial incentives. Legislation in the Climate Change Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, will remove the ban on waste collection authorities charging for the collection of household waste in up to five pilot areas. However it places several restrictions on the way in pilot authorities may charge. These include the requirement that any revenue raised by the authority must all be paid back to residents through rebates, meaning that overall there is no new burden on householders. Furthermore, before introducing a pilot, authorities must ensure that householders in the scheme have access to a good kerbside recycling service; that the needs of potentially disadvantaged groups have been taken into account; and that there is a good fly-tipping prevention strategy in place. Government will report back to Parliament on the success of the pilots before deciding whether or not to roll out these powers more widely.

The Nottingham Declaration

  49.  The Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change has had a significant and positive impact in motivating local authorities to take action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. Over 280 local authorities (over half the total in England) have now signed the declaration under which they agree to undertake a number of actions to help deliver the UK Climate Change Programme and to develop plans, within two years from signing, with their partners and local communities to address the causes and impacts of climate change.

  50.  The results of a survey of signatories of the Nottingham Declaration, conducted in September 2007 by the Energy Saving Trust, which provides administrative support for the Declaration, indicate that it has been effective in facilitating local authority action on climate change. Around 80% of respondents said that signing the Declaration helped build member and senior officer momentum within their local authorities. This is important as commitment from members and officers is essential for enabling effective local authority action. Signing the Declaration had helped get departments working together on climate change, according to 48% of respondents. Approximately 70% have either adopted a climate change action strategy or have undertaken preparatory work on one since signing, with 24% citing signing as the reason. It is also important to point out that around one third of respondents found that the Declaration had raised public expectations in the role of local authorities in tackling climate change, representing a key incentive for them to take further action.

To what extent should there be disaggregated targets for different levels of government? How should independent targets, for example Scotland will set its own emissions target for 2050 (80% reduction rather than UK target of 60%) and the Greater London Authority has committed itself to making a 60% cut by 2030, fit together with national carbon targets and budgets? How can Government monitoring and forecasting of emissions be improved so as to disaggregate emissions, and the impact of carbon reduction policies, in different regions and nations?

  51.  The UK Government recognises that some devolved administrations, regional governments and local authorities have or would wish to set targets to drive forward action on climate change within the areas they serve. While the Government does not envisage disaggregating the national target it does recognise that local targets can help drive action and that their achievement can make an important contribution to the delivery of our national targets. For example, the UK Government—via the Government Office network—is currently working with local authorities to agree targets within Local Area Agreements. As part of this work, Defra is encouraging as many local authorities as possible to set targets for carbon reduction in line with the new performance indicators.

  52.  Greenhouse gas emissions data, disaggregated for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was first published in 1999 and is now available for 1990, 1995 and annually from 1998.[7] The disaggregated data is usually published six months after the UK inventory is submitted to the EU and UNFCCC.

  53.  Defra also publishes annual experimental National Statistics on carbon dioxide emissions at Local Authority and Government Office Region level in the UK. For each Local Authority and Region, these provide estimates of total CO2 emissions, and emissions per capita of population. The statistics also provide a breakdown of emissions into three key sectors—"industrial, commercial and public", "domestic" and "road transport"—together with further breakdowns into more detailed sub-sectors. This data is intended to be used by local authorities and regional bodies to inform target setting.

How advanced and co-ordinated are local, regional and national programmes of adaptation to climate change? What support is there for adaptation? How vulnerable to climate change are local authorities, regional government and devolved administrations?

  54.  Adapting to climate change is an issue which all levels of government need to address. Some are well advanced in assessing and addressing the risks they face, in conjunction with their partners. But many more organisations need to do more to embed these issues in their mainstream business planning, risk management, contingency planning and investment strategies.

  55.  The Prime Minister announced on 17 November the Government's intention to further strengthen the adaptation measures in the Climate Change Bill, by introducing a risk based monitoring system and provision for statutory guidance. The Government will be tabling an amendment to create new powers to require public authorities to assess the risks of climate change and set out what action they need to take in response. The Government will also be publishing statutory guidance to help public authorities assess and address the impacts of climate change. This is in addition to the commitment to undertake a five yearly UK wide risk assessment and programme of action to address these risks in coordinate way. The Government's adaptation policy framework, to be published in a few months, will set out future priorities for a cross-Government programme on adaptation.

  56.  The Government commends the LGA for the leadership they have demonstrated in this area through setting up a Commission on Climate Change, which reported in December 2007. We look forward to working with them in responding to some of the issues identified in the report. We continue to work with the 10 Regional Climate Change Partnerships (partnerships of the public, private and voluntary sectors across England) which work with Regional Development Agencies, Government Offices for the Regions and other regional partners.

  57.  The UK Climate Impacts Programme provides one of the most well developed and utilised sources of information on climate change impacts and adaptation for the UK including tools to address the risks. Other countries have taken an interest in UKCIP's work as an example of best practice; for example in 2007 it hosted visitors from China and Finland.

  58.  All authorities and administrations have some level of vulnerability to the impacts of a changing climate. The important step is to look at the specific risks facing a particular area, the specific vulnerabilities and options for how to manage the risks.

How should the Committee on Climate Change reflect the interests and needs of the different levels of government across the UK?

  59.  The Bill requires that the Committee on Climate Change is appointed with regard to the desirability of securing experience in, or knowledge of, various issues including "differences in circumstances between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and the capacity of national authorities [ie devolved administrations] to take action in relation to climate change". These differences must also be taken into account by the Committee in advising on, and the Government when setting, each budget.

What are the barriers to greater local or regional action? Do the different levels of government have sufficient powers to take action? What changes in policy are needed to support action at a local level? What policies are working well?

  60.  A recent study carried out by the Centre for Sustainable Energy[8] on behalf of Defra, concluded that local authorities and regional bodies do have significant opportunities to take action to reduce carbon emissions and to adapt to unavoidable climate change within their existing powers and responsibilities.

  61.  Regional Assemblies are able to help tackle climate change through their statutory powers and functions as the Regional Planning Body, in preparing Regional Housing Strategies and in scrutinising Regional Development Agencies. Nine regional Climate Change Partnerships have also formed across England which work with Regional Development Agencies, Government Offices for the Regions and other regional partners.

  62.  Local authorities have extensive powers in the area of planning, housing and transport, which allow them to take a lead in tackling climate change. Additionally the Local Government Act 2000 introduced a power to promote "well-being". This discretionary power enables a local authority to do anything it considers likely to promote or improve the economic, social or environmental well-being of its area, provided that such action is not expressly forbidden elsewhere in legislation.

  63.  In addition, the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 introduced powers to enhance the ability of each local authority to lead their authority and local partners through:

    —  empowering communities, involving local people and businesses in service delivery;

    —  streamlining the current national Performance Framework and integrating it into Local Area Agreements;

    —  new governance arrangements (directly elected mayors or executives);

    —  local authorities acting as place-shapers and leading the Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP);

    —  changes to LAAs, replacing the four blocks with themes (including one concerned with economic development and the environment) and a single funding pot;

    —  recognising that delivery of services to local communities is a partnership between local government and a range of other public sector providers (Duty to Co-operate on named partners); and

    —  extending the power of wellbeing to town and parish councils, based on the Quality parish scheme.

  64.  The CSE study also found that examples of best practice to tackle climate change at the local and regional level are principally down to the extensive efforts of "wilful individuals" who, through their commitment, knowledge and doggedness, have been able to secure local change. The study recommended the use of performance frameworks to mobilise all local authorities to improve their levels of performance. In the last year, the Government has therefore focussed on developing appropriate performance frameworks, coupled with support mechanisms, to improve future levels of performance both local authorities and regional bodies.

  65.  Incentivising increased action by LAs needs to be consistent with the Government's approach to giving LA's greater flexibility to deliver on national priorities in the most effective way for that locality as outlined in the Local Government White Paper. The Government has stated that it is committed to a realignment of existing resources away from process, for example the preparation of reports, and towards outcomes such as measurable carbon savings, delivered in a way most appropriate for the local areas. Empowering LAs to address climate change also relies on a commitment by the UK Government to lift existing burdens and empower LAs to deliver according to local circumstance.

  66.  A table at Annex A summarises and evaluates key policies implemented in England to support and enable local and regional action on climate change.

What impact will the new Planning Policy Statement on climate change have on emissions reductions and work on adaptation? How are the so called "Merton rules" affected? How might other planning guidance be changed to reduce emissions?

  67.  The new Planning Policy Statement (PPS): Planning and Climate Change puts tackling climate change at the centre of what Government expects from good planning. That is why the PPS has been issued as a supplement to PPS1: Delivering Sustainable Development, which is central to the entire series of planning policy statements. This new emphasis on planning's role in helping to confront the challenges of climate change, is supported by our Planning Reform Bill which includes a new duty on local authorities to take action on climate change through local plans.

  68.  Climate change—both mitigation and adaptation—will now be a key and integrating theme in plans and planning decisions. In particular, the PPS sets out a significant role for both regional and local planning in helping to speed up the shift to renewable and low-carbon energy, supporting our ambitions on zero carbon development and helping shape places resilient to the impact of climate change.

  69.  Challenging councils to do more to support delivery of local renewable or local low-carbon energy is a key part of this. We expect councils to give a strategic lead through their spatial planning and developers to incorporate local renewable and low carbon energy, wherever viable.

  70.  The PPS builds on the "Merton rule" by requiring councils to have a policy which sets a percentage of the energy to be used in new development to come from decentralised and renewable or low-carbon energy sources. These policies should be flexible enough to allow for a range of local solutions including at the community level as well as those for individual homes or buildings. This means that Councils will still be able to continue with and adopt new "Merton style rules" although they must be tested as part of the development plan document.

  71.  We are calling our new policy in the PPS "Merton Plus" because we also expect tailored targets for sites where there are bigger opportunities than the council-wide target.

  72.  The preamble to the PPS makes clear that it does not seek to assemble all national planning policy relevant or applicable to climate change, and should be read alongside the national PPS/G series. Where there is any difference in emphasis on climate change between the policies in this PPS and others in the national series this is intentional and this PPS takes precedence.

  73.  The Impact Assessment supporting the PPS states that the primary benefit of the PPS will be to enable the planning system to support the implementation of the Government's other climate change policies and associated emission reductions. These include the statutory emissions reductions set out in the Climate Change Bill and the reduction in emissions expected as a result of the timetable for getting to zero carbon homes by 2016 confirmed in Building a Greener Future.

Are local authorities meeting their duty to enforce building regulations in relation to environmental measures? Does the enforcement regime discourage non-compliance?

  74.  Building Regulations and the Building Control system, unlike planning, is a fully devolved service to the Local Authorities which means we have little centralised data or evidence as there are no mandatory reporting requirements. Anecdotal evidence has shown that building control professionals tend to focus on issues that are critical to safety at the expense of newer regulations but we believe that the situation is improving. A recent survey of LA showed that, of those projects approved with conditions, energy efficiency was the second most common issue highlighted, after structure.

  75.  Local Authorities adopt a variety of techniques to enforce compliance over the course of a project, namely site inspections, communication, advice alongside more formal measures such as oral and written warnings.

  76.  We are currently undertaking a review of building control and will be publishing a consultation paper in the new year on specific measures to help increase compliance. Enforcement options such as issuing of stop notices and fixed monetary penalties are being considered, along with extending the time limit for prosecution.

  77.  For a small number of cases mismanagement or deliberate evasion requires the LA to take formal enforcement action—either requiring alteration or removal of non compliant building work or taking forward criminal prosecutions in the magistrates' courts. There are time limits on these activities which operate as a disincentive to local authorities and the government is committed to extending these time limits to two years.

What good practice is there to be shared? How is best practice shared and does central government support for sharing best practice work? What role should UK Climate Impacts Programme, IDeA, Salix Finance, the Carbon Trust and Energy Savings Trust play in providing support?

UK Climate Impacts Programme

  78.  The UK Government and devolved administrations provide funding to the UK Climate Impacts Programme which will be publishing new scenarios on climate change in the UK, in autumn 2008 along with tools to help organisations across the public sector use this information to assess and address risks.

  79.  The UKCIP has identified local authorities throughout the UK as priority stakeholders with regard to its work on climate impacts and adaptation. It has developed different support arrangements for the Local Authorities within each of the Devolved Administrations and worked with them and the UK government to produce a guidance document entitled "Climate change and local communities—how prepared are you?" (UKCIP 2003).

  80.  Since then UKCIP work in England has been channelled largely through the Nottingham Declaration Partnership. UKCIP was influential in the re-launch of the Declaration in 2005 and in the development of the Nottingham Declaration Action Pack (NDAP) tool. This was launched in Summer 2006 and is an online-tool offering guidance on the development of an Adaptation Action Plan. The NDAP invites local authorities to make use of other UKCIP tools/publications including: Climate Change Scenarios, Risk and Uncertainty Decision Making framework, Adaptation Wizard, Adaptation Case Study Database, Business Areas Climate Impacts Assessment Tool, Local Climate Impacts Profile, etc. The potential of a Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP) as a way of understanding local vulnerability has recently been recognised. Many authorities are now developing their own local profiles, with UKCIP encouragement and guidance.

  81.  In addition to the formal structured arrangements outlined above UKCIP offers a range of training events for councils and is constantly responding to requests for presentations and advice on adaptation to local authorities. In some cases UKCIP is able to provide these itself. In others it can call upon the regional climate change partnerships to provide this service. These partnerships now exist in all of the English Regions and in each of the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, though in slightly different formats.

RDAs

  82.  Regional Development Agencies have begun to share information on addressing climate change in the regions. In 2007 they launched a joint publication "Tackling Climate Change in the regions" which sets out examples of action being taken by RDAs[9] and their commitments to addressing the climate change agenda.

The Local Government Best Practice Programme

  83.  The UK Government is currently developing the £4 million local government best practice support programme which was announced in the UK Climate Change Programme 2006, jointly funded by CLG and Defra, will be delivered in alignment with the National Improvement and Efficiency strategy, through the new local authority led Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships and will aim to proactively benchmark the performance of local authorities on climate change and target those who need the most help to raise their performance to support delivery of local area agreements.

The IDeA managed Beacon Scheme

  84.  The Beacon Scheme identifies authorities and their partners that are delivering the best services to their local citizens and can teach others to do the same. In 2006 seven local authorities were successful in achieving beacon status for their work on delivering sustainable energy in their areas.

  85.  The beacon councils have demonstrated that authorities can be in the forefront of meeting the challenge of climate change. They are doing this in a number of ways, through developing innovative solutions to local generation and distribution of energy (Woking) through developing a holistic approach to community level approaches (Shropshire), through developing wide ranging delivery partnerships (Cornwall), through delivering better value for money in council services (Leicester and Lewisham) through using Eco-Management and Audit Tools to drive improvement (High Peak) and through developing public transport to help reverse growth in traffic levels (Nottingham).

  86.  These local authorities in partnership with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), Defra and the BERR have worked together to produce a benchmark and toolkit that draws on their good practice. The benchmark and enables councils to evaluate their current performance against delivering sustainable energy and the toolkit provides specific guidance to make improvements. This was published in July 2007.

  87.  A new theme on Tackling Climate Tackling Climate Change in round nine of the Beacon Scheme will build on the success of the Sustainable Energy theme widening our knowledge of successful authorities work on adapting to the effects of climate change.

  88.  The UK Government also supports the regional and local delivery of carbon abatement activity by offering funding to bodies such as the Carbon Trust, Salix Finance and the Energy Saving Trust who all play a key part in supporting the public sector on delivering action to tackle climate change. We will continue to work with these organisations to encourage the development of support aligned to help local and regional bodies to improve their responses to climate change.

Energy Saving Trust

  89.  The Energy Saving Trust (EST) offers a range of advice, support and information to local authorities and registered social landlords. EST administers a number of programmes including Practical Help which is a tailored source of information and support on delivering energy efficiency and sustainable energy to their communities.

  90.  The Energy Saving Trust website has a wealth of information including the latest news and events; a great number of publications including case studies, policy summaries and briefing notes; details of sources of funding and other relevant organisations.

Carbon Trust

  91.  As well as delivering support to public sector through its Carbon Management programme and site specific surveys the Carbon Trust also provides publications and web tools such as the online action planning tools, down-loadable sector based fact sheets and a range of sector case studies and best practise guidance notes.

  92.  Web-based online communities also facilitate opportunities to exchange best practice regarding carbon reduction in the public sector. Their Networks business area allows customers to discuss carbon saving technologies, debate solutions to successful behavioural change and react to incoming policy and legislation.

Salix

  93.  Salix Finance has an important role to play in providing financial support to public sector bodies to invest in energy efficiency. There is close working between the Carbon Trust and Salix, with many of the projects identified through the Carbon Management Programme going on to receive funding from Salix.

  94.  Salix shares best practice through the production of case studies and also through the relationship managers that work with public sector bodies to establish revolving loan funds and can share knowledge and understanding of what has or hasn't worked in different projects.

The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006—Energy Measures Report

  95.  The Energy Measures Report, published by BERR in 2007, seeks to pull together existing sources of help and advice to local authorities on climate change and fuel poverty, such as EST's practical help service, into one place. The guidance will assist Local Authorities to perform well against the new performance indicators on climate change. In September 2007, BERR also made available a web-based report "Addressing Climate Change and Fuel Poverty—Energy Measures Information for Local Government" with various sections aimed at the parish and town council sector as well as various levels of English and Welsh Local Government.

  96.  Ministers from Defra, CLG and BERR recently wrote to local authority chief executives drawing the attention to their responsibilities under the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 and the Report.

  97.  Defra also published a document setting out how town and parish councils could exercise their powers under the Act. The booklet "Ways to tackle climate change—Parish and Town Councils—Act on CO2" briefly covered the Act including where further information could be obtained. Defra mailed a copy of the booklet all 8,700 parish councils and distributed it at a number of conferences. The booklet was packed with ideas and case studies on how local communities could get involved and take action on climate change.

Core Cities and Climate Change

  98.  Defra and CLG, working with the Core Cities Group, recently developed and signed a Joint declaration, which was launched at the Core Cities Summit in November. This document sets out how we will work with the core cities develop the type of leadership and innovation that is needed to meet the challenges posed by climate change in our major cities.

  99.  We are also providing £250,000 to pilot a new approach towards carbon management at a city level across the core cities and which will develop learning that will be of use to all cities. The Low Carbon Cities Programme (LCCP) The programme was developed (by EST and CT) and will provide lessons for local authorities which could assist in supporting their new climate change functions as a response to new local government performance framework.

Awards and recognition

  100.  In 2007 Defra sponsored the Local Government Chronicle sustainable community awards which contained a specific category on tackling climate change. This was aimed at those local authorities that have recently begun engaging in the climate change agenda not only to reduce their own carbon emissions but also those of their district. Recognition was given to councils that have shown local leadership and were able to demonstrate the benefits to their community. The winners were Mendip District Council with Guildford Borough Council being highly commended and Maidstone Borough Council and Middlesbrough being commended. It has continued its sponsorship of the event and the 2008 winners will be announced shortly.

21 January 2008

Annex A

EFFECTIVENESS OF KEY POLICIES SUPPORTING LOCAL AND REGIONAL ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
PolicyComments on effectiveness of policy Quantifiable effect to date?
EST Key Account Management ProgrammeOffering targeted Local Authorities the opportunity to help reduce carbon emissions and demonstrate leadership in addressing climate change through a Key Account approach. The purpose of the programme is to support councils to develop a strategic approach to sustainable energy across all their services and activities.

2007-08 is the first year of full rollout of the Key Account programme, and 30 Council's are currently mid-way through the process of developing a strategic carbon reduction strategy. Full evaluation will be undertaken after year one is complete and so data is not yet available, but already Councils have identified initial opportunities for carbon reduction covering, inter-alia, housing, transport and policy development. The Key Account programme compliments the Carbon Trust Carbon Management programme, which focuses on own estate.

EST—Practical Help
The Energy Saving Trust runs the Practical Help service specifically for local authorities and housing associations. This free service gives a single contact point where you can get information and support to help drive forward sustainable energy initiatives. It can provide information and advice on a range of topics including strategic drivers, funding, and measures which can be implemented. The Practical Help service continues to be well utilised, with 96% of Councils aware of and using the service. Local authority officers and members have utilised free research, had access to publications and case studies, and over 60 presentations and workshops have been held, covering the range of energy efficiency and carbon reduction areas. EST are finding that enquiries to the service are becoming more complex, reflecting a raising of the bar in terms of knowledge and awareness in the field. Workshops are correspondingly becoming more in-depth. Quantitative evaluation is currently in progress, addressing the difficult of issue of how to attribute direct carbon savings to advice services.

EST—Regional Support
Energy Saving Trust has developed working partnerships with regional bodies in each of the English regions. EST has supported the inclusion of sustainable energy in regional housing, economic and spatial strategies and have assisted the establishment of regional groups/partnerships that develop action plans for domestic energy and climate change. Six regions have been selected for close work Regional Steering Group. To date one region (South West) has signed up to a low carbon housing action plan. Three further regions are developing similar action plans for agreement by stakeholders. In addition regional workshops have been held on building climate change into Local Area Agreements, linking LAs with GOs, RDAs and RAs, and a national conference covered areas such as newbuild, planning, the performance framework and improving understandinig between regional bodies and local authorities. All English regional bodies are also provided with a regular e-news publication.

EST—Café
Information, Support, Advice, Training There are 3,500 members of Café across the UK, with membership on track to grow to 4,500 by 2008. Café has helped individuals, community groups and energy professionals equip themselves to deliver carbon saving solutions on the ground, such as local micro-renewable projects. As well as advice, guidance, support and signposting to funding, café is also working strategically with organisations including the Church of England and the Womens Institute to utilise their member framework to encourage and galvanise action on carbon reduction by leveraging the use of these organisation's infrastructures.

EST Innovation Programme
Grant support scheme to provide funding assistance to renewable energy or energy efficiency implementation schemes and feasibility studies The Innovation Programme is now in its last year with all schemes to be closed by the end of the financial year. As at the end of December the programme had funded 160 feasibility studies and 68 implementation schemes with 33 implementation schemes still outstanding.

Carbon Trust—Carbon Surveys
Through Carbon Surveys the Carbon Trust provides practical advice and guidance to Local Authorities. A free visit by a independent, accredited consultant identifies energy savings opportunities from simple low or no-cost to investments that pay for themselves within 1-3 years. CT have worked with over half of the LA sector identifying on average 1000tCO2 per survey.

Carbon Trust-Local Authority Carbon Management (LACM)
This is a systematic five-step programme providing a strategic view of how carbon impacts the organisation by identifying the risks and opportunities associated with climate change. It's a holistic approach

involving staff in all areas and importantly requires senior management support. Focusing on peer mentoring and knowledge sharing between public sector bodies, the programme brings change management and technical expertise to help LAs develop long-term strategies for carbon savings.
This programme has grown substantially over the last four years with 1/3 of the LA sector now having developed Carbon Management Implementation Plans. The programme now supports 45 large councils per year.
The LACM programme has to date identified 570,000 tCO2 and over £43 million.

Carbon Trust—Web services, publications and telephone advice
www.carbontrust.co.uk enables LAs to access a whole range of self-assessment tools, guides and directories.
The Carbon Trust publishes fact sheets, case studies and in-depth guides tailored to LAs. It is the largest library of independent advice on energy efficiency in the UK.
The Carbon Trust's Contact Centre offers free telephone advice on any aspect of energy saving through it team experienced account managers.
Currently ~ 750 unique LA web registrations per year access the CT website to utilise the online action planning tools and access its online guidance.
Publications on sector and technology bases provide key advice to LAs.
A significant number of LAs across the UK access practical carbon saving advice and guidance from the Carbon Trust's Contact Centre.

Carbon Trust—Online Community "LA Network"
CT runs a web-based online community, the LA Network, which offers useful fora in which to discuss carbon saving technologies; debate solutions for behavioural change, and react to incoming policy and legislation. Free to all participants. Over 1,000 subscribers participate within this online community. It has served as an invaluable communication channel to and between LAs so as to disseminate carbon saving opportunities.
Carbon Trust—Design AdviceAvailable from the Carbon Trust, this specialist service includes a detailed printed guide and face-to-face consultancy. It will help to identify the carbon savings in new and renovation building projects, offering free or subsidised consultancy advice throughout the project stages. A free Building Design Advice Guide contains detailed, practical advice about procuring energy efficient buildings—from deciding on the right technologies to commissioning and maintenance—essential reading for anyone involved in creating or adapting environmentally friendly, non-domestic buildings. Uptake of this service has been strong with robust carbon savings being identified with very long associated persistence factors.

Carbon Trust—Partnerships for Renewables (Carbon Trust Enterprises Limited)
Carbon Trust Enterprises established Partnerships for Renewables (PfR) to work in partnership with public sector bodies to develop, construct and operate onsite renewable energy projects, with a target of 500MW of projects in development in five to eight years. Defra has provided £10 million by way of seed funding, with the remaining £500 million of investment required being leveraged from the private sector. PfR is currently working with over 100 public sector bodies.

Salix Finance
Salix Finance is an independent, publicly funded company, set up in 2004, to accelerate public sector investment in energy efficiency technologies through invest to save schemes. Salix has public funding from the Carbon Trust and is working across the public sector with Local Authorities, NHS Foundation Trusts, Higher and Further Education institutions and Central Government.
The role of Salix is to help public sector organisations reduce carbon emissions through capital investment in energy saving projects. Salix provides interest-free, matched funding, with the fund structured so that the energy savings pay the capital project cost back over time.
Salix began as a pilot with Local Authorities. The pilot was a success and Salix was subsequently made an integral part of the UK Climate Change Programme. By the end of the current financial year Salix expects to be managing funds worth up to £40m in total in 80-100 clients.
—  The £4 million Local Authority Energy Financing (LAEF) pilot scheme was launched with 19 LAs in 2004.
—  Salix received a further £16m in funding for 2006/08 which allowed the pilot to be rolled out to a full programme and to bring in other parts of the public sector.
—  Salix are working currently with 53 LAs across England and Wales with committed funding from Salix of £10.6 million.
—  Across the public sector 900 Salix energy saving projects are in place that are saving 180 000 tonnes of CO2, 50% of which has been saved in the current financial year.
Municipal Waste PolicyMunicipal waste contributes around 10% nationally to controlled waste arisings. Local authorities are key deliverers of improvements to municipal waste management. Municipal waste contributes to climate change directly through methane emissions from landfills and indirectly through inefficient use of resources and materials. The landfill allowances trading scheme (LATS) is reducing the amount of methane producing waste landfilled by local authorities. Statutory BVPI recycling targets have also increased the amount of household waste recycled. The national Waste Strategy, published May 2007, increased the focus of future actions on waste prevention and minimisation. The new local government performance framework, LATS, removing the ban on waste collection authorities charging for the collection of household waste in up to 5 pilot areas and the landfill tax escalator will ensure that key municipal waste performance measures continue in the right direction. Municipal waste treatment saved an estimated net 0.5 million tonnes carbon equivalent in 2006-07.
Municipal waste has grown significantly less than GDP since 2000; municipal waste increased at about 3.5% per year up to the millennium but average growth over the last five years has been less than 0.5% per year.
Recycling and composting of household waste has more than quadrupled since 1996-97; local authorities have exceeded the 2005 national household waste recycling and composting target of 25% set in Waste Strategy 2000 achieving 31% in 2006-07.
The amount of household waste not re-used, recycled or composted fell by 23% between 2000 and 2005-06 from 450 kilograms per head to 367 kilograms per head.
Less municipal waste is being landfilled—with falls from 82% to 58% for municipal waste between 1998-99 and 2006-07.
Public awareness of recycling has grown with over half the population considering themselves committed recyclers.
Current UK recycling of paper, glass, plastics, aluminium and steel is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year through avoided primary material production (equivalent to annual use of 5 million cars or 14% of UK transport sector emissions).

Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) (2002-05 and 2005-08)
EEC is a legal obligation upon energy suppliers to meet targets for improvements in energy efficiency among households in Great Britain. There are no direct regional or local requirements, but energy suppliers work with a range of delivery partners including Local Authorities. As EEC is a national scheme, measured and monitored on a national basis, it is difficult to measure its impact at a local level. However energy suppliers have developed effective and creative approaches with a range of LAs eg council tax rebate schemes.
Decent HomesEnsuring that homes have both efficient heating and effective insulation is an integral part of the Decent Homes standard.
The Decent Homes Standard has halved the number of homes in the social sector that provide inadequate thermal comfort.
The Building Research Establishment report on Implementing Decent Homes in the Social Sector stated that many of the landlords surveyed were working to a higher standard than just basic decency. This is especially true in regards to energy improvement works, where the vast majority of landlords' Decent Homes programmes (over 90%) included a provision to install both cavity wall and loft insulation well in excess of the minimums set out in the standard.
The Decent Homes programme has had a significant and demonstrable impact on the thermal efficiency of housing in the social sector.
The social sector has an average rating of 57, compared to 46 in the private sector.
The social sector has improved more than the private sector since 1996, rising 10 points up the index. The private sector has risen only five points over the same period.
Almost all social sector housing (96%) has a rating of more than 30.
The average SAP score for social housing in 2005 was 57 compared to 47 in 1996 (2005 methodology).
In the social sector the number of dwellings with a SAP of 30 or less has been substantially reduced since 1996, from over 14% of the stock to only 4% in 2005 [SAP 2005 methodology].

Beacons Scheme and Climate Change Best Practice Programme
The Beacons Scheme is a best practice programme that recognises and rewards excellence in best value authorities in different themes each year. A "sustainable energy" theme in 2005 identified 7 Sustainable Energy Beacons who have been working with DEFRA, CLG and the IDeA to disseminate their contribution to the Climate Change debate and help establish a programme of peer support. Local authorities are currently being assessed for Beacon status in a new "tackling climate change" theme which will lead to awards in March 2008. This theme will build on the work of the sustainable energy beacons and lead the way for joint CLG—DEFRA £4 million Climate Change Best Practice programme. The 2005 "Sustainable Energy" Beacons have created a benchmark and toolkit to help others to provide local solutions to an international problem. These interrelated tools have helped councils evaluate their own performance and provide guidance for improvement. These Beacons have also been sharing their good practice in a range of learning activities including articles and features, websites, events and mentoring.

Home Energy Conservation Act (1995)
HECA has been successful in raising the profile of domestic energy efficiency for local authority action. HECA has recently been reviewed (see: www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/heca/index.htm) HECA data as reported by Energy Conservation Authorities in England in the period 1 April 1996 to 31 March 2006 reports an overall improvement in domestic energy efficiency of approximately 19.26% as measured against a 1996 baseline.
Building Regulations (enforcement)It takes about a year for the house-building industry to complete existing developments and start working to new regulations. Therefore meaningful evaluation cannot take place for at least a year after new regulations are introduced. CLG and Defra are in the process of letting a contract for an independent assessment of compliance with Part L (2006). This will inform the further amendments to Part L that the Government has committed to.
Other actions are also currently underway to consider how compliance across the whole of the building regulations can be improved through our review of building control. This review includes proposals for a more effective risk based approach to inspection and a wider range of more effective sanctions for Building Control Officers such as the power to issue stop notices and heavier fines.
N/A

Warm Front and fuel poverty programmes
Warm Front is a key instrument in alleviating fuel poverty in England by providing grants for heating and insulation measures to vulnerable households. Over 1.6 million households have been assisted in England since the Scheme's inception in 2000. By the end of this CSR period, over £1.6 billion will have been spent on the Scheme.

Community Energy Efficiency Fund (CEEF)
CEEF is a competitive funding programme which was developed in response to the Chancellor's announcement of funding (£6.3 million in England) to improve the delivery of Warm Front and the Energy Efficiency Commitment, at the local level. A total of 119 bids were made with a value in excess of £11 million, with 50 projects across England awarded funding. As this funding was only awarded during the current year it is too early to report on the impact of the funding, however it is anticipated that these projects will reach over 600,000 households over the next three years.
Low Carbon Buildings ProgrammeLCBP provides grants towards the installation of microgeneration technologies for households, community groups, public, private and third sector organisations.
LCBP Phase 1, which is managed by the Energy Saving Trust, originally had a £30 million budget with ~£20 million set aside for non-domestic projects including local authorities. Within six months of launch, the fund's allocation for domestic projects over three years had been committed in full. As a result, the Government approved the re-allocation of £6 million from the non-domestic funding streams to support the domestic stream.
In the Budget 2007, an additional £6 million in new money was made available to domestic projects as a result of higher than anticipated demand.
LCBP Phase 2, managed by the BRE, has a £50 million budget, providing grants towards the installation of microgeneration technologies in public and third sector organisations.
Grants of between 30%-50% are available depending on the technology used, with applicants needing to secure match funding from other sources before applying to the programme.
Uptake has been slower than had been hoped. We consider that this may be due to the following factors:
—  planning for this scale of project takes a considerable amount of time, and the scheme has only been open since December 2006;
—  applicants are having difficulty obtaining match funding in addition to the LCBP grant; and
—  framework suppliers have required time to set up their promotional activities.
LCBP Phase 1 (non-domestic)

Expressions of interest
Total = 2,747 (£207 million)
LA's = 328 (£30 million)

Grant applications
Total = 650 (£32.5 million)
LA's = 92 (£7.1 million)

Grant offers
Total = 323 (£11.5 million)
LA's = 49 (£1.7 million)

Grants paid
Total = 41 (£0.5 million)
LA's = 7 ((£0.1 million)

Website hits to www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk
Total = 500,000

No potential carbon savings under Phase 1, and most promotion towards domestic.

LCBP Phase 2 (public, non profit)

Grant applications
Total = 538
LA's = 121

Grant offers
Total = 431
LA's = 108

Grant claims
Total = 43
LA's = 7
Website hits to www.lowcarbonbuildingsphase2.org.uk
Total = 86,000

Potential carbon savings (all public, non profit organisations, all technologies)

Annual = 1,466 tCO2
Lifetime = 32,666 tCO2

Promotions to local authorities include
Climate Challenge FundThe 83 grant-funded projects under the Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) run until the end of February 2008. Each quarter (or every six months for smaller projects) we assess the delivery of the projects against their initial proposals. The aim of the CCF is to influence people's attitudes towards climate change in a positive way. Each project is required to survey the attitude of their target audience before and after the project. At the end of the CCF we will collate and analyse this evaluation data to gauge how effective the projects have been in influencing attitudes. An evaluation strategy has been drawn and the evaluation data will be collected from the projects in April.

Bio-energy Capital Grants Schemes
The purpose of this Scheme is to support the efficient use of biomass for energy by stimulating the early deployment of biomass-fuelled heat and combined heat and power projects. Projects will be evaluated against a range of criteria, including their contribution to reducing carbon emissions. Projects funded to date will be evaluated following completion, most likely in 2009-10. Defra expects to run further rounds of the Scheme up to 31 March 2011, subject to funding being made available through the Comprehensive Spending Review. Local and regional authorities have been allocated £4.656 million of the £9 million available in 2007-08.

Sustainable Travel Towns
Three towns of Darlington, Peterborough and Worcester are sharing £10m from 2004-09 to look at what a sustained programme of smarter choices measures can achieve. Smarter choices include workplace and school travel planning, car sharing schemes, increased walking and cycling, improved public transport provision and marketing including personalised travel plans. The programme has so far targeted 180,000 people and achieved a 10% reduction in car trips and a 16% increase in bus use with a 20% increase in walking and a 30% increase in cycling. Darlington has also over 10,000 residents in its "Local Motion" sustainable travel supporters club.

Cycling Demonstration Towns Project
Five towns of Brighton, Darlington, Derby, Exeter and Lancaster are each receiving £1.5 million from 2005-08 with a 6th town Aylesbury receiving £900k (as smaller) to test the hypotheses of whether investing at levels seen in successful European cycling cities we can start to see a step change in cycling in England. A monitoring regime has been established but it is too early to make an analysis of the results. After Summer 2008 will be in a position to examine the data.














1   www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/03/30091039/0 Back

2   http://new.wales.gov.uk/about/strategy/onewales/?lang=en Back

3   http://www.ofmdfmni.gov.uk/economic-policy-sustainable-development Back

4   http://www.defra.gov.uk/ENVIRONMENT/climatechange/uk/ukccp/index.htm Back

5   http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/strongprosperous Back

6   http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/strategy/strategy07/index.htm Back

7   http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/index.htm Back

8   http://www.cse.org.uk/cgi-bin/projects.cgi?policy&&1077 Back

9   http://www.englandsrdas.com/filestore/pdf/107639%20RDA%20Leaflet.pdf Back


 
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