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Northumberland Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 11, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Our key target of a net-zero Northumberland by 2030 still stands. This is a huge amount of work, but far more will need to happen in order to meet our goal of a carbon neutral county.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022

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

Northumberland Council was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in the Ecological emergency section.

SectionNorthumberland CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score72%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
17/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
10/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
2/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
4/5
2.3/5
Section 9 · Top performer Ecological emergency
4/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

1531.1 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.7 tCO2

per person

0.3 ktCO2

per km2

35%

Domestic

33%

Transport

18%

Industry

7%

Agriculture

4%

Commercial

2%

Public Sector

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 Northumberland Council 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
Cumbria County Council84%Yes2050No
East Ayrshire Council81%No2030No
West Lancashire Borough Council78%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Angus Council78%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council77%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Allerdale Borough Council76%Yes2030Sept. 25, 2019
South Ayrshire Council76%No2045No
Durham County Council75%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
North Yorkshire County Council75%Yes2030No
Denbighshire County Council75%No2030July 2, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Northumberland Council 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
Angus Council84%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Craven District Council81%No2030Aug. 6, 2019
East Ayrshire Council81%No2030No
Herefordshire Council80%Yes2030March 8, 2019
South Ayrshire Council79%No2045No
Ribble Valley Borough Council79%No2030No
The Highland Council79%No2025May 9, 2019
West Lindsey District Council78%Yes2050No
East Riding of Yorkshire Council78%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Melton Borough Council78%No2030July 17, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
North of Tyne Combined Authority94%YesNo targetMay 7, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council92%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council91%Yes2030May 23, 2019
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council90%Yes2050July 25, 2019
North East Combined Authority89%NoNo targetNov. 5, 2019
Durham County Council89%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
South Tyneside Council88%No2030July 18, 2019
Sunderland City Council87%Yes2030March 27, 2019
Carlisle City Council86%No2030March 5, 2019
Scottish Borders Council86%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020

These councils are the most similar to Northumberland Council 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
Bassetlaw District Council99%NoNo targetNo
Lancaster City Council97%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
Sedgemoor District Council95%Yes2030March 20, 2019
Wyre Forest District Council95%YesNo targetMay 22, 2019
Bridgend County Borough Council94%No2030July 22, 2022
North Lincolnshire Council93%Yes2030No
Cumbria County Council93%Yes2050No
Telford & Wrekin Council93%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Carlisle City Council93%No2030March 5, 2019
Newark and Sherwood District Council93%Yes2035July 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Northumberland Council 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
North Lincolnshire Council97%Yes2030No
East Riding of Yorkshire Council97%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
North West Leicestershire District Council96%Yes2030June 25, 2019
Broadland District Council96%No2050No
Vale of White Horse District Council96%Yes2045Feb. 13, 2019
South Derbyshire District Council94%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council94%Yes2030No
Denbighshire County Council94%No2030July 2, 2019
South Oxfordshire District Council93%Yes2025April 11, 2019
Cambridgeshire County Council92%Yes2050May 14, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Northumberland Council is a Unitary Authority, 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.

    Passenger transport

    Climate actions might include:

    • encouraging bus and private hire operators to use low-emission vehicles, through licensing requirements or Clean Air Zones
    • incentivising bus use by improving routes, timetables, and ticket prices through ‘Enhanced Partnerships’ with operators
    • proposing to central government the development of light rail / tram networks that integrate, rather than compete, with other modes of transport in the area

    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

    northumberland.gov.uk
    Northumberland Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Northumberland Council’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 Northumberland Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Northumberland Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/northumberland-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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