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London Borough of Sutton

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 22, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2045

“Pledges to make Sutton carbon neutral by 2045.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 2022
Environment Strategy Progress Reports | Sutton Council

Progress Report · HTML
Environment Strategy 2019–2025 And Climate Emergency Respose Plan

Document · PDF

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Climate Plan Scorecard

This council’s climate plans as of 20th September 2021 were assessed and scored by trained Climate Emergency UK volunteers, as part of the Council Climate Plan Scorecards project.

Show the full Scorecard Read more about the scoring process

SectionLondon Borough of SuttonAverage single tier council
Total score48%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
5/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
13/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

549.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.6 tCO2

per person

12.5 ktCO2

per km2

47%

Domestic

30%

Transport

10%

Industry

8%

Commercial

5%

Public Sector

0%

Agriculture

Data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy “subset dataset”, representing carbon dioxide emissions within the scope of influence of local authorities.

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Sutton in terms of emissions profile, deprivation, rural/urban population density, and geographical nearness. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames89%Yes2038June 25, 2019
London Borough of Harrow88%Yes2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Merton88%No2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Barnet87%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
London Borough of Bexley86%NoNo targetNo
Watford Borough Council84%No2030July 9, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council83%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames82%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council82%Yes2030June 20, 2019
London Borough of Bromley82%Yes2027No

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Sutton in terms of their emissions profile, based on the latest data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Enfield93%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Croydon93%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Luton Borough Council93%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Hastings Borough Council92%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019
London Borough of Ealing92%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Watford Borough Council92%No2030July 9, 2019
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council91%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Fareham Borough Council91%Yes2030Oct. 24, 2019
Eastleigh Borough Council90%Yes2025July 18, 2019
London Borough of Havering90%YesNo targetNo

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Merton99%No2030July 10, 2019
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council99%Yes2035July 23, 2019
London Borough of Croydon99%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
London Borough of Wandsworth99%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Lambeth99%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council98%Yes2030No
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames98%Yes2038June 25, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea98%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham98%Yes2030July 17, 2019
London Borough of Southwark98%No2050March 27, 2019

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Sutton in terms of the proportion of their population living in high deprivation, medium deprivation, and low deprivation neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Cambridge City Council85%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames84%Yes2038June 25, 2019
London Borough of Merton83%No2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Bexley82%NoNo targetNo
Oxford City Council81%Yes2030Jan. 28, 2019
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council79%No2030No
Cheltenham Borough Council79%Yes2030Feb. 18, 2019
London Borough of Harrow79%Yes2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Bromley78%Yes2027No
Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council78%Yes2038Nov. 28, 2018

These councils are the most similar to London Borough of Sutton in terms of the proportion of their population living in urban, rural, and highly rural neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Manchester City Council100%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Watford Borough Council99%No2030July 9, 2019
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames99%Yes2038June 25, 2019
Leicester City Council99%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow99%Yes2030No
London Borough of Barnet99%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Slough Borough Council99%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Croydon99%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Nottingham City Council98%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
Luton Borough Council98%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020

Features

This council’s climate plan has been tagged with the following features:

Comprehensive plan for adaptation Strong on public health

Powers & Responsibilities

London Borough of Sutton is a London Borough, with powers over:

Council buildings and staff

Climate actions might include:

  • making council offices more energy efficient
  • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
  • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    Environmental health

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing industrial emissions through air quality enforcement
    • bringing up insulation and energy efficiency standards through enforcement of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and Decent Homes Standard 2000, for cold and damp conditions in private rental and social housing

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Planning and building control

    Climate actions might include:

    • imposing reasonable requirements that new developments comply with energy efficiency standards and get a proportion of their energy from local, renewable sources (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • incorporating additional energy performance standards into their Local Plan, for new works that require planning permission
    • using Area Action Plans to guide development proposals towards lower carbon emissions or more cycling and walking routes, for example
    • enforcing legislation that requires private rental properties to be of Energy Efficiency Rating E or above (Energy Efficiency Regulations, 2015)
    • funding energy efficiency improvements on existing homes, through initiatives such as Green Homes Grants

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Schools and libraries

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing the carbon footprint of civic buildings through better insulation and renewable energy use
    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
    • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    • encouraging eco-clubs at schools
    • using school land to plant trees and hedgerows, or to grow food

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Housing

    Climate actions might include:

    • setting energy standards above building regulations (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • enabling housing associations to improve the energy efficiency of their housing stock through loans
    • where councils operate their own social housing, prioritising energy efficiency – for example, by requiring Passivhaus standard for newly built schemes

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Spending, procuring, and investing

    Climate actions might include:

    • embedding carbon impact assessment as part of the council’s budgeting and financial accountability process
    • utilising Public Works Loan Board loans or the Business Rates Retention Scheme to invest in emissions-reducing capital projects that otherwise wouldn’t get funded
    • specifying low carbon equipment and practices when procuring for relevant services from suppliers
    • prioritising positive environmental impacts during procurement, through the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
    Transport planning

    Climate actions might include:

    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ like walking and cycling by creating or widening footways and cycleways
    • incentivising Electric Vehicle use by assigning street space to EV charging
    • disincentivising the use of fossil fuel cars through congestion charging,low-traffic neighbourhoods, or the reduction of parking space

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Waste collection and disposal

    Climate actions might include:

    • establishing ‘Joint Waste Solutions’ with neighbouring councils, to get more value out of waste, recycling, and street cleaning contracts
    • running marketing campaigns to encourage residential recycling, reuse, and waste minimisation

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Read more about English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

    sutton.gov.uk
    London Borough of Sutton’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check London Borough of Sutton’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.
    Friends of the Earth ‘Near You’ tool
    Discover climate groups in this area, data about London Borough of Sutton’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: London Borough of Sutton. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/london-borough-of-sutton/ [Accessed 24 Mar 2023].

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