Net Zero: “Progress is being hindered by central government”

Ever feel like climate action is happening too slowly? You’re not alone. Richard Cook, Leader of Gloucester City Council and Deputy Chair of Key Cities, doesn’t mince words: “Progress is being hindered by central government through a lack of powers, clarity, capacity and funding.”

Cook leads on climate for Key Cities, a network of 27 UK cities that has published a report, Levelling Up, Emissions Down, which calls on government to define the role of local councils in achieving net zero, invest in capacity and specialist skills, and for new regulations to govern the expansion of the energy grid.

Taking part in an interview for The Developer Podcast alongside Cook, Lancaster City councillor Gina Dowding’s frustration is audible: “On a strategic level, Government is not giving us any clear direction,” Dowding says.

“They’ve not laid out what is local government and local council’s role in achieving net zero, there’s no mandate for us to do this as a local council, and it’s pretty heroic that progress is being made on this front at all.”

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“It’s particularly brought into stark relief when we’re preparing our budgets. We’re under so much financial pressure with councils literally facing bankruptcy,” Dowding adds.

But against the odds, both Cook and Dowding’s councils have been investing in energy resilience. Gloucester has installed solar panels and heat pumps on buildings such as their tennis centre, making it energy-cost free.

Lancaster has installed heat pumps and energy systems to make their leisure centre effectively net zero, having built a solar farm on a nearby former waste site. Lancaster City Council has also developed plans for an additional 4-megawatt solar farm at Burrow Beck which could provide 80% of its electricity consumption using more than 10,000 solar panels.

Both say they could do more. Lancaster City Council wants to adopt higher housing standards to create net zero homes, but has been battling with the government over a ministerial statement that has been frustrating its changes to the local plan.

The stalemate over the 2015 ministerial statement featured in episode two of ITV’s The Great Climate Fight which saw Kevin McCloud confront Secretary of State Michael Gove and ask him to accompany him to Lancaster. The ministerial statement has since been amended, a welcome move, but during our interview, it’s clear Cook and Dowding are not in agreement about what the revised wording actually means. “Again, it’s just not clear,” Dowding says. “We need clarity.”

Funding is, of course, another major issue hindering progress on achieving net zero: “Most of the cities within the Key Cities network do not have specified funding for dealing with climate projects. It’s a non-statutory thing that we do, so it’s funded out of what’s left over. That’s why progress is slow.”

The fact that councils must bid and compete for additional funding is another problem: It takes time and capacity to apply for funding from central government, and there’s no guarantee of winning a bid. This makes it hard for councils to be strategic, with progress dependent on seeking out random pockets of money to apply for. “It’s disjointed,” says Cook.

If you do win? “It never covers the whole cost,” adds Dowding. “There’s always some match funding that needs to be put into it and the additional staff capacity.”

If you are lucky enough to get your energy project funded, connecting into the energy grid is the next problem. Councils are being told that it could take between eight and 15 years for new solar arrays or wind turbines to be connected to the grid.

“I see the shock on your face but it’s absolutely true,” says Cook. “If you develop a new wind farm or solar array, you are told that you have to wait up to 15 years to get it connected to the grid to start making money. It’s just bonkers.”

“It’s actually restricting live projects,” says Dowding. “Our solar farm next to the leisure centre had to be just 1 megawatt, but it could have been larger.”

These power generation projects can make money or reduce the council’s energy bills on expensive public buildings such as leisure centres or libraries.

“Renewable energy generation can be a really good income generator for councils, so we need these projects,” says Dowding. “We’re all in financial difficulty and some of these projects would really help us in terms of our budget over a fairly short period of time.”

One of the main policy recommendations in the Key Cities report calls for upgrades to the grid and regulations to require Distribution Network Operations to align their grid work with local development plans.

“The Distribution Network Operators need to up their game as far as investment is concerned, so that when we do generate more energy we can effectively use it within the grid,” Cook adds. “That way we’ll be able to stop using fossil fuels and turn those power stations off.”

In the meantime, councils are getting creative with “private wires”. In Gloucester, they’re looking to use solar panels on top of car parks to power EV chargers and nearby buildings: “That’s the only way to make sense out of this,” says Cook. “You can’t wait 15 years to start making money.”

“This is all the result of really long-term lack of investment in infrastructure by government,” says Dowding. “We knew this was coming down the line. The chickens are coming home to roost.”