National climate change targets are unlikely to be met unless
councils are given long-term funding, devolved powers and easier
access to complex government funding pots, the Local Government
Association says today.
Councils have been working on various successful initiatives -
including incorporating sustainability issues into their local
development plans - to tackle climate change with many of them
working towards being zero carbon. To date 230 councils in the
UK, along with the LGA, have declared a climate emergency.
While making efficiencies and innovations to tackle climate
change, the LGA said the efforts of councils are being restricted
by a lack of long term funding and devolved powers, and
challenges with monitoring and implementation. For example, when
tackling air quality and pollution, councils do not have control
over all roads, as some are operated by Highways England,
limiting their ability to take action.
Even when government funding is available, councils are still
having to navigate overly complex bureaucracy to access it from
more than a dozen different Whitehall departments, with a vast
array of different objectives, timetables and rules.
The LGA is offering the Government to set up a joint national
taskforce comprising local leaders and relevant government
departments – including the Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy; the Ministry for Housing, Communities and
Local Government; the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs; the Department for Transport; and the Treasury – to
determine the funding, legislation and policy changes needed to
deliver zero net carbon emissions by 2030.
The LGA is calling for the Environment Bill to be reintroduced as
part of the Queen’s Speech and for work by the proposed taskforce
to include reviewing the Bill to consider any climate emergency
actions needed.
It is also urging the Government to:
· Move away from siloed national growth funding
pots to joined-up local funding lots based on areas and led by
councils
· Properly fund the concessionary bus fares
scheme – which faced an estimated £652 million shortfall in
2017/18 - to boost public transport and tackle poor air quality
and congestion
· Allow councils to set planning fees locally
and for permitted development rights to be scrapped as they allow
developers to ignore community needs and undermine local plans
based on sustainable growth supported by appropriate
infrastructure
· Establish a properly resourced national air
quality support scheme for councils with appropriate legislative
and policy changes to support more effective enforcement and
alternative modes of transport. This needs to happen in parallel
with the full implementation of moving traffic powers for
councils, which would reduce harmful vehicle emissions and
improve fuel efficiency
Cllr David Renard, LGA Environment spokesman, said:
“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet and councils
are best placed to respond to the public’s growing concern about
this and other burning environmental issues moving further to the
top of the Prime Minister’s in-tray.
“Councils are already doing significant work to mitigate and
support communities to adapt to climate change, and can play a
leading role in delivering a better environment for everyone. We
can achieve faster progress by taking the lead on harnessing
national initiatives at a grassroots level to benefit local
communities and the environment.
“But local government cannot work alone. To achieve the ambition
of net zero carbon emissions, councils will need further powers
and sustainable funding, including easier access to government
funding streams, to deliver national policies which impact on
climate change locally.
“A joint national taskforce led by councils would harness the
critical partnership between local and national government to
coordinate and drive climate change action for the benefit of
communities, the country and the planet.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Collaborative work
with government as part of a national taskforce proposed by the
LGA would include:
· Addressing the need for greater energy
efficiency in the built environment through regulatory changes
and planning practice
· Identifying ways to reduce the amount of
unrecyclable waste entering the system and investment for waste
disposal and processing
· Establishing resource needs and regulatory
changes to support the move to electric vehicles, including the
provision of charging points on new housing developments; the
implications of hydrogen fuel cell technology on local transport
and infrastructure; and incentives and investment needed to
support a shift towards public transport, walking and cycling
· Examining the national and regulatory issues
on solar energy
· Reviewing the Environment Bill, once
published, to consider any climate emergency actions needed
- In June 2019 the UK
Government’s Voluntary National Review of the Sustainable
Development Goals, set by the United Nations, estimated that 65
per cent of the 169 targets need local investment.
- Initial research
commissioned by the LGA reveals that between 2015 and 2017 more
than 300 separate grants were handed out from national government
to councils, based on figures from HM Treasury’s spending
database. The grants came from 14 different Whitehall departments
and more than one third were for £10 million or less, with a vast
array of different objectives, timetables and rules
