Agenda item

To seek approval of the main budget headings to allocate the £200k Climate Emergency Fund set aside in the 2020/21 budget to enable delivery of the Action Plan.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Executive approves the budget headings identified in Annexe 1 to be funded from the climate change earmarked reserve.

31.1     Cllr Steve Williams, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability, who presented the report proposing high-level budget allocations for the £200k Climate Change Fund. He thanked Council for preserving this fund in the Contingency Budget, and whilst it was not the total expenditure on actions to achieve zero carbon, it was an important source of funding for pump-priming projects.

31.2     Cllrs Mulliner, Seaborne, Cockburn and Hyman spoke and noted:

·         Contrary to paragraph 5.2, the proposed funding plan had not been discussed with the Climate Change Advisory Group; and the Budget Assessment Criteria matrix appeared to have been labelled the wrong way around;

·         Some of the funds would be well spent on providing additional support to help the existing officers to deliver a properly assessed and costed Climate Emergency Action Plan to the Executive in December. This was a huge task and it was unrealistic to expect the two officers currently working on this to deliver without additional help. The next iteration of the Action Plan needed to have a higher degree of focus, clarity, costing and realism than the draft version most recently published.

·         The 2016 baseline of emissions from the Council’s own business showed that 74% came from Council-owned housing. Through a structured programme of housing modifications, this had been lowered by 3000 tonnes of carbon per year, or a 20% reduction since 2016. That programme would continue to drive down emissions, but at some point further progress would require expensive interventions on heating and insulation to drive down emissions. There was nothing in the budget proposals to address the council’s own housing stock, or carry out a comprehensive housing stock condition survey for Waverley which was a fundamental requirement to inform Waverley’s leadership role in reducing carbon emissions. The Housing O&S Committee had endorsed this work stream and it was disappointing that this important piece of work had not been provided for in the budget.

·         Surrey County Council had responsibilities to promote active transport measures as part of their responsibilities to address air quality issues, and it was important that they were held accountable to meet their responsibilities.

31.3     In response, Executive Members thanked Members for their comments and advised that: the stock condition survey of Waverley owned housing would need to be funded from the Housing Revenue Account rather than the General Fund, and a separate budget request would be required for the wider housing stock condition survey as this was such a major piece of work.

31.4     In concluding, Cllr Williams reminded Members that the consultation on the draft Action Plan was still live, and the closing date had been extended to allow time for people to respond. He noted that there had been criticisms that the Action Plan was needed to be both ambitious and realistic, which was a difficult balance to achieve. It would not be possible to fund every action from Waverley’s own resources but it was important to identify the necessary actions to achieve a zero carbon Waverley by 2030.

31.5     The Executive RESOLVED to approve the budget headings identified in Annexe 1 of the report, to be funded from the climate change earmarked reserve.