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From ground zero to green hero
Barnet’s journey to becoming one of London’s most sustainable boroughs
INNOVATION & IMPROVEMENT
Cllr Ross Houston
Deputy Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Homes and Regeneration, London Borough of Barnet
Cllr Ross Houston
Deputy Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Homes and Regeneration, London Borough of Barnet
Issue 72 | July 2024
On a sunny morning in May at the StoneX Stadium, the newly elected Leader of Barnet Council, Barry Rawlings, declared an immediate climate and biodiversity emergency in his victory speech after an historic landslide win for Labour in the 2022 local elections. For Barnet Council this was the start of a step-change in our journey to reach net zero
Manifesto for change
For us as Labour councillors, that journey began long ago, with years of campaigning on the issue while in opposition, through to developing our manifesto for change in 2022.
In that manifesto we pledged to put sustainability and communities at the heart of what the council does, with a target to reach net zero for the council by 2030 and for the borough by 2042.
Of the 150 pledges it contained, 37 specifically related to net zero, and we began to deliver in earnest following Barry’s announcement after the count.
Citizens’ Assembly
Recognising that all residents have a role to play in this, our first big priority was to set up and deliver a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change in early 2023.
Sixty residents aged from 12 to 90 met over a four-month period to help answer the question: “How can we work together to be more sustainable now and in the future?” Their final report made 20 recommendations across five cross-cutting themes, and we have since established off-shoot action groups, chaired and led by citizens and community groups to help progress the work.
We also launched a BarNET ZERO challenge on the back of these recommendations, asking anyone who lives, works or studies in the borough to come up with innovative ideas on delivering these recommendations. The challenge is due to announce its winners in June 2024.
Our achievements
Without significant investment for retrofit from government, delivering net zero is a challenge for all local authorities, but we are doing everything we can and in just 18 months we have:
- Appointed a lead member and lead officer for sustainability.
- Launched our BarNET ZERO brand, campaign and newsletter to collaborate with residents and businesses.
- Employed a Biodiversity Officer.
- Joined the London-wide anti-idling campaign to reduce harmful vehicle emissions and improve air quality.
- Established a programme of planting 1,000 trees a year over the next five years.
- Progressed our decarbonisation programme to 23 council-owned buildings (including three libraries, our office at Colindale, 17 schools and two community buildings). This is expected to achieve carbon reduction savings of 754 tonnes.
- Started on our journey to transition our pensions portfolio to net zero, while continuing to meet our fiduciary duty to pension holders.
- Installed more electric vehicle charging points than ever before, soon to reach 2,000, by far exceeding our original target of 1,219 by 2030.
- Committed Brent Cross Town (an £8 billion development) to being a net zero carbon town by 2030 at the latest, including an on-site energy centre and the largest air source heat pump installation in Europe. The planned 6,700 new homes will have low carbon heating and all energy supplied will come from 100% renewal sources.
- Started consulting on modifications to our draft Local Plan including robust policies on net zero development.
Trees to be planted over the next five years
Electric vehicle charging stations installed (exceeding target of 1,219 by 2030)
New homes to have low carbon heating and all energy to come from 100% renewable sources
Small steps, big strides
In 2022 Barnet Council ranked zero on Climate Emergency UK’s Scorecard. Our position 18 months later has rocketed to 46%, meaning we are now ranked in the country’s top 18% of local authorities for our progress to net zero.
We still have a long way to go, but from small steps to big strides we are on our journey from ground zero to becoming one of the most sustainable boroughs in London.
“We are now ranked in the country’s top 18% of local authorities for our progress to net zero.”
