| Sectors & Activities/Public Sector The Local Government White Paper was published in October 2006 and made clear that local government has a key role to play in tackling climate change and achieving the UK's 60% by 2050 CO2 emissions reduction target. The White Paper calls on local authorities to rise to the challenge and play their part, whether as estate managers, statutory service providers or community leaders. The Housing Green Paper published at the end of July 2007 upon which the Government is seeking views by mid-October 2007 is pushing the idea of developing 5 eco-towns. In a further step to ensure that every new house built from 2016 is carbon zero, Stamp Duty Land Tax relief is due to be made available from October 2007 for new carbon zero houses to be constructed. In addition, the independent Climate Change Commission, launched recently by the Local Government Association, will look further and more critically at the ways in which local government can tackle carbon emissions in their own buildings and facilities. For example, as property owners and employers, local authorities can manage the energy consumption of their buildings, introduce green travel plans for major council sites to reduce reliance on cars, implement a green procurement policy and develop local renewable sources of energy by setting up energy service companies. As regulators (either through planning or building regulation controls), local authorities can influence the design, siting and location of new buildings (thereby reducing the need to travel) and encourage energy efficiency in both the domestic and industrial sector. As policy makers they can adopt a framework which will shape low carbon places and create an attractive environment for innovation and investment by the private sector, for example by policies which will secure and encourage decentralised renewable sources of energy. At the regional level planning bodies can predict and manage performance on carbon emissions, setting trajectories for the region that will inform policies at the local level.Local authorities also have a key role to play as waste authorities, by the allocation of sites and by supporting projects for energy from waste facilities using non-incineration technologies. Finally, as developers or regeneration partners, local authorities can use contractual provisions to ensure that new development carried out on publicly owned land meets zero-carbon targets, a move that is all the more timely given the Housing Green Paper. Our advice to local authorities in this area has included:
Clive Read, Partner
|
  |