Climate Emergency Action Plan (July 2021)

Energy and the Built Environment

Key messages

Energy production across the borough needs to be decarbonised on a large scale. To achieve carbon neutrality across the borough, emissions from buildings will need to be close to zero.

To achieve this, there will need to be a large-scale retrofitting programme for the existing housing stock (for example, to replace thousands of traditional gas boilers), improved energy efficiency of the structure of the building and enhanced reliance on renewable energy sources. Likewise, new buildings need to be built to a higher standard with energy efficiency and alternative renewable power given a priority.

A barrier to this change is likely to be the cost – there may need to be policy change at a national level to make such improvements financially viable for householders and businesses. There would also need to be a sufficient supply of competent installers to meet householder demand.

This borough wide change to the vast majority of domestic housing, including some properties granted but not yet built, is considered to be the largest single area of work required within this action plan. Without this, the carbon neutral target of 2030 may not be possible. It is this area of improvement that will require significant focus, investment and co-operation of the borough’s residents during the coming decade if we are to meet our 2030 goal. The financial costs of retro-fitting housing is not to be underestimated, and we shall be lobbying national government to make this an affordable option for all.

At the same time, works are needed to reduce energy demand, through behavioural change. The councils own estate of buildings will need investment to 2030 in order for them to operate as carbon neutral. To this end we have started to undertake energy audits of the estate to prioritise those using the most energy and plan for the improvements required to the estate in the coming years.

For other buildings within the borough, we will be lobbying central Government to provide affordable retrofitting options for householders to allow them, at an affordable cost, to improve the carbon efficiency of their home.

Commitment	Action	Partners	Timescale
Improvements to Buildings
Make best use of the planning processes to ensure all new housing stock is sustainable in design and affordable to heat	including encouragement of renewable energy generation	LCC, developers	Ongoing Annual
Work with private landlords and housing associations to encourage best practice	Showcase high quality developments and best practice Enforce housing legislation to ensure statutory compliance Create a voluntary code of practice	Private landlords, local housing associations	Short term Short term Short term
Enforce private rented Minimum Efficiency Standards regulations	Work with landlords to secure compliance		Ongoing Annual
Investigate domestic retrofitting options	To understand emerging technologies, and those options most efficient and effective for the borough		Short term
Retrofit a domestic property	SRBC to organise, to use as a flagship of best practice for the borough	Schools and colleges, local businesses, residents	Medium term
The Council will seek to lead by example in its use of decarbonised energy	Production of decarbonisation plans for the Council estate Implement findings of decarbonisation plans across the Council estate		Ongoing Annual
Use LED lighting across the Council estate			Ongoing Annual
Work with colleges and businesses to provide training opportunities	To ensure the provision of training to meet local demand for installation of new technologies and retrofitting for existing housing stock	Schools and colleges, apprenticeship providers	Short term
Seek funding opportunities for low carbon heating	To expediate the implementation of energy and building related actions, for example via public sector decarbonisation schemes		Ongoing Annual
Energy Improvements
Investigate potential for district heat networks	Produce an options paper, report to elected members.	LCC	Short term
Formation of a renewable energy co-op	Working with residents to form a co-op for the local production of renewable energy	Local businesses, voluntary sector, residents	Short term
All electricity will be purchased via green tariffs	Rolling programme as present Council tariffs expire		Ongoing Annual
Investigate actions needed to improve capacity to store low carbon energy on Council owned land	Produce an options paper, report to elected members	LCC, local businesses	Medium term
Examine the possibility of large-scale solar projects within the borough	Produce an options paper, report to elected members	LCC Renewable energy Co-op	Short term
Make use of emerging technology to continually improve how we act as an organisation	Continue to investigate opportunities for low carbon funding Ensure SRBC developments make use of low carbon technologies and set an example of good practice for other development within the Borough		Ongoing Annual
Annual reporting of the Council’s GHG emissions	Reporting of emissions arising from Council activities and improvements		Ongoing Annual
Assist small businesses in conducting their own energy audits	Provide tailored information and advice to enable mall businesses to assess their carbon footprint, produce decarbonisation plans and reduce energy demands	Local businesses	Short term
Learning from best practice	Learning from best practices in Councils such as Bristol, Coventry and Cornwall where successful progress has been made	Local Authorities	Ongoing Annual
Encouraging behavioural change
Raise public awareness of smoke control legislation	Raise awareness of, and enforce, smoke control legislation to reduce the illegal burning of wood and solid fuels		Short term
Promote national Government low carbon incentives within the borough	Provide information on emerging technologies and funding methods for residents and businesses		Ongoing Annual
Information and awareness raising	To reduce consumer energy demand, and improved energy efficiency of buildings	LCC, schools and colleges, local businesses, residents	Ongoing Annual
Working for national change
Lobby national Government to ensure low carbon energy is available and affordable for everyone	Lobby government to provide affordable net-zero measures that are accessible to all Lobby government to raise the minimum standards for all new build projects via the planning process and building regulations		Ongoing Annual
Respond to energy and built environment related consultations	To facilitate / promote delivery of above actions at earliest opportunity		Ongoing Annual