II. PLANTEAMIENTO TEÓRICO
1. LA EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR
Introduced in 2000, the Well Being Power enables local authorities to do anything they consider likely to improve the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of their area. It has only two restrictions; it cannot be used with the primary motive of raising money, and it cannot be used to circumvent other local authority prohibitions, restrictions or limitations.
The power has been used to support many once-innovative practices which have now become mainstream:
Nottinghamshire County Council used the power to
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enable the council to participate as a minority share- holder in a not-for-profit Energy Service Company (ESCo) Braintree District Council used the power to roll
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out financial incentives for residents to install hot water systems, given the importance of investing in renewable energy
South Hams used the power as the basis for developing
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a district-county agreement to establish a waste transfer station (now enabled through Joint Waste Authorities).
Even where the power has been used unsuccessfully (as in the case of Brent LBC v Risk Management Partners Limited), it can still drive innovation. In this case, a number of London
boroughs set up a mutual insurance company to pool their risks. Although there was precedent for this, the Court of Appeal decided that the Well Being Power does not allow local authorities to embark on schemes simply to reduce costs. Unless cost savings are clearly identified to promote or improve wellbeing, they are not within the scope of the power.
A neighbourhood partnership with a local authority on board may be able to take advantage of the LA’s powers to facilitate the development and delivery of retrofit programmes.
Funding and use of own assets
Local authorities could use their own assets and funding streams to support neighbourhood retrofit projects. Chapter 7 explores this issue in detail. Local authority involvement in the partnership will also improve access to buildings they own, especially social housing. As detailed in the impact assessment for the Strategy for Household Energy Management,87 certainty of demand from these homes can help to achieve significant economies of scale for measures such as solid wall insulation (where savings are estimated at 15 to 36 per cent).
Local Authorities are required to develop a Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS), which sets out the long-term vision for tackling local needs. This is the ‘plan of plans’ and sets out the key tasks for partners to achieve wellbeing in their area. The performance of local authorities is currently measured by a range of National Indicators (NIs), which are designed to deliver the SCS vision. These cover the full range of their responsibilities.
As noted in Chapter 2, work to upgrade existing
infrastructure can deliver a wide range of benefits which will help local authorities meet many of their targets and outcomes as set out in the SCS. In 2008, the SDC and the Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA) developed
proposals for a sustainable development (SD) lens. This is a basket of local indicators that can be used voluntarily to guide and track progress towards sustainable development at the local level. The lens brings together the 22 current key local authority NI targets relating to sustainable development.88 As Table 9 demonstrates, upgrading existing infrastructure could have a direct, positive impact on 14 out of 22 of these categories. Depending on the delivery vehicle (and the extent to which this involves communities) it could also have a potential positive impact on a further seven of the remaining eight indicators. By playing a central role in neighbourhood partnerships, local authorities could ensure that programmes of work are designed to maximise these wider benefits.
Why would LAs want to be involved?
SD Issue National Indicator (NI)
Potential impact of infrastructure upgrades on NI target
A safer community NI 17 Perceptions of anti-social behaviour Potential positive impact NI 198 per cent of children walking or cycling
to school Direct positive impact
Community cohesion & identity
NI 2 per cent of people who feel that they belong
to their neighbourhood Potential positive impact
Effective & inclusive participation
NI 4 per cent of people who feel that they can
influence decisions in their locality Potential positive impact
Good Governance NI 3 Civic participation in the local area Potential positive impact
Mitigation against, and adaptation to, the effects of climate change
NI 186 Per capita CO2 emissions in the LA area Direct positive impact NI 188 Adapting to climate change Direct positive impact
Sustainable consumption/
waste reduction NI 191 Residual household waste per head Direct positive impact Protecting & improving
biodiversity
NI 197 Improved local biodiversity – active
management of local sites Direct positive impact
Good quality, sustainable buildings
NI 158 per cent of decent council homes Direct positive impact NI 187 Tackling fuel poverty Direct positive impact
Access to good quality green space
NI 199 Children and young people’s satisfaction
with parks and play areas Direct positive impact
Water use Water use: water consumption per head
(Source: Area Profiles/Ofwat) Direct positive impact
Access to local services NI 175 Access to services and facilities by public
transport, walking and cycling Direct positive impact
Road traffic congestion NI 167 Congestion – average journey time per mile
during the morning peak Direct positive impact
A strong local business community
NI 172 VAT registered businesses in the area
showing growth Potential positive impact
Good employment
opportunities NI 152 Working age people on out of work benefits Potential positive impact Economic wellbeing NI 116 Proportion of children in poverty Potential positive impact
Health & wellbeing NI 119 Self-reported measure of people’s overall
health and wellbeing Direct positive impact
Education and lifelong learning
NI 163 Working age population qualified to at least
Level 2 or higher No direct impact
Health inequalities Health inequality: (a) infant mortality (by socio- economic group) (b) life expectancy (by area) for men and women (Source: ONS)
Direct positive impact
Local area footprint Ecological footprint of area (Source: REAP/WWF/
Stockholm Environment Institute) Direct positive impact
Whilst these targets are key drivers for local authorities, the non-mandatory nature of most of them means they cannot be relied upon as an incentive for action. This is especially the case with climate change, given the increasing role local authorities are expected to take and the seriousness and urgency of the issue. Some forward-thinking local authorities have already realised that the costs of not implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation measures will be significant, and have developed carbon management plans or climate change strategies. Manchester undertook its own ‘mini-Stern’ (looking at the economic cost of climate change) and estimated that the city region risks losing £12 billion over the next 12 years if it fails to adapt (and £70 billion for the North West region).89 However, many other local authorities are making slower or minimal progress in this area. Only last year, the Audit Commission found that ‘few areas have developed ambitious long-term strategies to drive CO2 reductions’. Two-thirds of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) have set targets for NI 186 (per capita CO2 emissions in the local authority area) – but these targets range from a 1 per cent reduction in Bristol to a 15 per cent reduction in Kirklees, with a median reduction target of 10.6 per cent. Only a fifth of targets exceed the reductions that are expected to be delivered by nationally implemented initiatives.90 This level of ambition is woeful compared to the scale of change needed to meet the agreed UK carbon reduction target. In addition, only 57 local authorities (out of almost 400 in England) have designated NI 188 adaptation targets.91 The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) energy efficiency scheme, which came into force in April 2010, may help to bring discussion of carbon impacts into the financial decision-making in those local authorities which fall under
the scheme. However, the focus is only on emissions from local authority stock. It does not look at borough-wide emissions such as those from transport or issues relating to climate change adaptation. A concern is that the scheme may encourage local authorities to dispose of assets with poor energy performance, in order to reduce their emissions. This can be a significant problem when assets are taken on by community groups with limited income to undertake upgrades. Where assets are disposed of to such groups, assistance should be made available to undertake energy efficiency upgrades to the asset.
As well as helping local authorities achieve their NI targets and SCS vision, working with neighbourhood partnerships can help improve their local evidence base on reductions in carbon emissions – achieved through both physical measures and behaviour change. This will be vital in measuring progress against area-wide emissions (i.e. for NI186 and Local Carbon Frameworks). While there is an increasing number of incentives for local authorities to take action on climate change, these are not necessarily sufficient for this to become a key concern across all local authorities – especially in times of shrinking public sector budgets.
Climate change mitigation and adaptation measures should no longer be viewed as optional extras. Earlier this year the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution called for all public bodies, programmes and policies to have a legal duty to adapt to climate change.92 This follows the route taken in London where since 2007 the GLA has had a statutory duty to tackle climate change. Alongside this they are required to produce a Climate Change and Energy Strategy, and Climate Change and Adaptation Strategy.
Recommendation
Given the urgency in tackling climate change and the critical role local authorities can play in enabling, encouraging and engaging people to undertake action through neighbourhood partnerships and integrated neighbourhood retrofit programmes, we recommend that the local authority’s role be formalised as local leader on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. This could be achieved through a requirement to set mandatory targets on climate change mitigation and adaptation (NI186 and 188) or by making this a duty on local authorities.