Local government and the path to net zero Contents
Summary
It is clear the UK will struggle to reach net zero by 2050 unless central and local government work together to deliver solutions tailored to meet local circumstances. To facilitate this, the Government has committed in its Net Zero Strategy to clarifying the relationship between central and local government in the delivery of net zero and to improving co-ordination between different layers of government. It remains to be seen, however, if this amounts to the comprehensive local government net zero delivery framework called for by the Climate Change Committee.
- We urge the Government to immediately begin consulting local government on the contents of a draft net zero delivery framework setting out the relative roles and responsibilities of local and central government.
Local authorities will be particularly important to ensuring a just transition to net zero, since no layer of government is closer to people or better able to tailor climate action to meet the needs of local communities. Only by harnessing local government can central government deliver a just transition that benefits all communities. Without that just transition, the Government will struggle to persuade the public to make the necessary changes.
- The local government net zero delivery framework should clarify the critical role local government must play in delivering a just transition to net zero that benefits all communities.
The level of grant funding for local authority climate action has increased in recent years, but much of it remains short term and is allocated through competitive bidding processes, which are expensive and burdensome and make it difficult for councils to plan for the long term.
- We recommend that the Government come up with a plan for funding local authority climate action in a way that gives councils the confidence and ability to plan for the long term.
To ensure that new homes are contributing towards achieving net zero, certainty is needed about the details of the Future Homes Standard, which will ensure homes are built with 75–80% lower carbon emissions from 2025.
- The technical consultation on the Future Homes Standard should take place in 2022 rather than 2023, thereby enabling the relevant legislation to be brought forward as soon as possible. The Government should consider setting a further target of moving to zero carbon homes by 2030.
- As the Government’s target is to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, it should explain where the additional heat pumps and other low-carbon heating systems will come from to meet the demand of all 300,000 new homes.
The planning system can also support the move to net zero. Resources will also be needed to ensure that planning authorities have the necessary skills to devise and monitor effective decarbonisation policies.
- To support making new housing carbon neutral, net zero should be given a central role in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The proposal in the Planning White Paper for local authorities to have a statutory responsibility to produce a Local Plan should also include a requirement that the Local Plan specifically addresses the issue of carbon emissions and how the local authority will ensure developments in their area contribute towards achieving net zero.
- We recommend that £500 million be invested over four years into funding the planning system.
Existing homes also need to have their insulation improved and their heating systems decarbonised. Funding must come from both the Government and private investment. The £3.9 billion of funding, including the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, outlined in the Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy is welcome. But there needs to be more certainty about funding for retrofitting beyond 2025.
- The Government should set out its longer-term funding plans beyond 2025, and outline the share of funding for retrofitting it anticipates will come from private investment. The Government should also consider offering tax incentives, which could include lower VAT, stamp duty and council tax, for energy efficient measures and homes.
- The Boiler Upgrade Scheme will only fund at most 90,000 additional heat pumps, and there is seemingly no role for local authorities in the delivery of the scheme. The effectiveness of the scheme should be monitored closely to ensure its successful contribution to the retrofitting of homes.
- Future funding schemes for retrofitting should give local authorities a major role; allocate funding without competitive bidding; be adapted to different types of housing and income groups; should be long-term in duration to provide certainty for the public and suppliers; and should be clear and easily accessible.
The lack of a requirement to replace a gas boiler that has ceased working with a low-carbon heating system until 2035 risks a large number of existing gas boilers simply being replaced with new gas boilers, especially given that there is a lack of incentives to do otherwise.
Local authorities have a vital role in promoting retrofitting in their area, including through consultation with the public. The Climate Assembly UK similarly stressed the need for the public to have choice over the technologies used for retrofitting.
- The Government must ensure there is as much choice for the public in deciding how their homes are retrofitted as is technologically possible. There is therefore a need for progress on developing alternatives to heat pumps, including hydrogen heating. Local authorities should be given the necessary support and resources to fulfil their important role in retrofitting.
Local authorities are also well placed to influence emissions from road transport, which accounted for one quarter of the UK’s emissions in 2019. In particular, they can use their planning powers to seek to prevent development from locking residents into car dependency and encourage a modal shift to public transport and active travel.
- In the short term, the Government should clarify the need for sustainable transport and placemaking to be embedded in all new development. In the longer term, and in line with our recommendation that net zero be given a central role in the NPPF, it should amend the NPPF to require all housing development to be properly serviced by public transport and active travel networks and be within walking distance of local shops and amenities. As far as possible, all employment areas should also be served by public transport.
- We urge the Government to make good on the welcome promises set out in the national bus strategy, in particular to give local authorities more control over bus services, and to explain as soon as possible how it plans to make sure local authorities have the necessary funding to provide high-quality public transport services in rural areas.
- We recommend that funding for active travel be put on a more consistent footing and that the Government work more closely with local authorities to support and monitor their activities.
The contribution local authorities can make to net zero extends well beyond buildings, heating and transport. For example, they can support the decarbonisation of energy generation and supply through the delivery of smart local energy systems; reduce emissions from waste by using their responsibilities for collection and disposal to push waste up the Waste Hierarchy and by connecting more energy from waste facilities to district heat networks; use their procurement powers to encourage best practice and keep services local; and use their position of local leadership to help businesses and the public to reduce their own emissions. It is for central government, in partnership with local government, to enumerate everything local authorities can do, and should be doing, to reduce emissions locally.