Agenda item

Resolved: that the Committee would refer its views to Mayor and Cabinet as follows –

·         The Committee welcomes the work being carried out by officers to deliver home energy efficiency in the borough. It also welcomes the initial work that is taking place in response to the Council’s declaration of a climate emergency. However, the Committee believes that officers working in this area need additional resources to deliver this work.

·         The Committee believes that one way to increase funding would be to provide upfront backing for ‘green projects’ (such as solar installations or other micro generation projects) in the borough that would deliver a sustainable longer-term financial return. This may result in added support for Lewisham’s most vulnerable households whilst also generating resources for future work by the Council. The Committee would welcome a written response from Mayor and Cabinet alongside the attendance of the relevant Cabinet Member at a future Sustainable Development Select Committee meeting in order to provide details of the Executive’s response to this proposal.

5.1    Martin O’Brien (Climate Resilience Manager) introduced the report, the following key points were noted:

·         The Home Energy Conservation Act placed a statutory duty on housing authorities to give account every two years for the work being carried out to improve energy efficiency.

·         It was the only statutory requirement on local authorities in the area of energy conservation. The single requirement was that each authority had to produce a report, which could merely confirm that no work was being carried out. However, Lewisham had decided to produce a full report.

·         The Council declared a climate emergency in February 2019. The scope and impact of the declaration was significant.

·         Declarations were also being made by councils across the country.

·         Most people agreed that climate change was a significant issue and that action was required. But action so far had not been as fast or as substantial as was required to bring about change.

·         The public sector had an important role to play in tackling climate change, not least because volatility in the climate would have the most detrimental impact on the most vulnerable in society.

·         The Council needed to demonstrate leadership in terms of the sustainability of its estate - as well as the way it used energy to deliver services and through its partnerships.

·         Officers had commissioned work to explore how it should respond to the climate emergency declaration.

·         A working group had also been set up to help develop an action plan.

·         Cost options would be developed which would compare business as usual with proposals for significant reductions in carbon emissions.

·         Officers were also considering how future key decisions made by the Council would impact on the delivery of this work.

·         Nationally, work had taken place to decarbonise the electricity grid but there was still a significant reliance on fossil fuels for heating.

·         Work was being carried out to make use of the energy being generated by the South East London Combined Heat and Power plant (SELCHP)

·         Work was also taking place with neighbouring boroughs to support vulnerable residents to access funding to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

·         The Council was planning to launch a community energy fund – which would provide small grants to community organisations to delivery projects to improve energy efficiency.

·         Work was taking place with Lewisham Homes and with the Council’s planning department to ensure that energy efficiency was a key consideration for future plans.

5.2    Martin O’Brien responded to questions from the Committee, the following key points were noted:

·         Lewisham planning policy required new developments to conform with the London Plan – which used a hierarchy for energy usage strategies (in order of priority): be lean, be clean, be green. This meant that new developments should be built to require as little energy as possible. After this, the requirement was that the energy that was being used should be as sustainable as possible.

·         40% of the carbon emissions in the borough were produced by domestic housing. The largest proportion of this was from owner occupiers. The market for energy efficiency measures for housing was not well developed nor well trusted.

·         The challenge was to propose solutions to householders in a trusted form. This would focus on reducing demand but it would also include supplying energy in clean ways.

·         Lewisham was slightly ahead of other London Boroughs in terms of its carbon reductions (from the 2005 baseline). However, it was difficult to directly attribute this directly to any specific projects.

·         The Government Energy Company Obligation required all bill payers to contribute to efficiency measures through their bills. This had a disproportionate impact on low income households.

·         It was easier for companies to provide efficiency measures outside of London – particularly in Scotland, where there was match funding. It was also easier to make improvements in houses (which only required agreement/consents from one owner) rather than in flats or homes in multiple occupancy.

·         Lewisham had created a partnership through South East London Community Energy to find households that could benefit from support.

·         Lewisham had also been successful at accessing other sources of funding.

·         The Council’s previous carbon reduction strategy was published in 2008. Resources had been restrained since this time and delivering projects had been a priority (rather than developing a new strategy).

·         The infrastructure to develop a heat network was costly – up until now – there hadn’t been sufficient certainty from developers to justify this from a commercial perspective.

5.3    Resolved: that the Committee would refer its views to Mayor and Cabinet as follows –

·         The Committee welcomes the work being carried out by officers to deliver home energy efficiency in the borough. It also welcomes the initial work that is taking place in response to the Council’s declaration of a climate emergency. However, the Committee believes that officers working in this area need additional resources to deliver this work.

The Committee believes that one way to increase funding would be to provide upfront backing for ‘green projects’ (such as solar installations or other micro generation projects) in the borough that would deliver a sustainable longer-term financial return. This may result in added support for Lewisham’s most vulnerable households whilst also generating resources for future work by the Council. The Committee would welcome a written response from Mayor and Cabinet alongside the attendance of the relevant Cabinet Member at a future Sustainable Development Select Committee meeting in order to provide details of the Executive’s response to this proposal.