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Preston City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on April 18, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Make the Council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2030.”

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Support and work with all other relevant agencies towards making the Preston district Zero Carbon within the same timescale (2030).”

Climate documents

We couldn’t find any climate action plans for this council.

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

Preston City Council scored zero points in this assessment. This is because the council either didn’t have any published plans at the time of the assessment, or the plans didn’t qualify.

SectionPreston City CouncilAverage district council
Total score0%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

539.0 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.7 tCO2

per person

3.8 ktCO2

per km2

35%

Domestic

26%

Transport

14%

Industry

14%

Commercial

9%

Public Sector

1%

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 Preston City 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
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority87%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Burnley Borough Council83%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Salford City Council83%No2038July 17, 2019
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council82%No2025Sept. 11, 2019
Leeds City Council82%No2030March 27, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority81%No2038July 26, 2019
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council81%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council81%Yes2030April 3, 2019
West Yorkshire Combined Authority80%No2038June 27, 2019
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council80%Yes2030July 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Preston City 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
Welwyn Hatfield Council87%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority86%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Canterbury City Council85%Yes2030July 18, 2019
City of Edinburgh Council83%Yes2030Feb. 7, 2019
Salford City Council83%No2038July 17, 2019
Swansea City Council82%No2030June 27, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council82%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council81%Yes2030April 3, 2019
Blackpool Borough Council81%Yes2030June 26, 2019
West Dunbartonshire Council80%Yes2045May 29, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
South Ribble Borough Council98%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Chorley Council97%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Wyre Council96%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Fylde Borough Council95%NoNo targetNo
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council95%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Ribble Valley Borough Council94%No2030No
Lancaster City Council94%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
West Lancashire Borough Council94%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Hyndburn Borough Council94%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council93%Yes2038July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Preston City 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
Mansfield District Council93%No2040March 5, 2019
Tees Valley Combined Authority93%NoNo targetNo
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council92%Yes2040June 10, 2019
Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council92%No2037July 16, 2019
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council91%Yes2030Aug. 29, 2019
Hyndburn Borough Council90%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council90%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Newport City Council90%Yes2030Nov. 23, 2021
Bradford Metropolitan District Council90%Yes2030Jan. 15, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority89%Yes2040April 28, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Preston City 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
West of England Combined Authority97%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council97%YesNo targetNo
Telford & Wrekin Council96%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Milton Keynes96%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council95%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Hartlepool Borough Council95%NoNo targetNo
Three Rivers District Council95%No2030May 21, 2019
Thanet District Council95%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Warwick District Council94%No2030June 26, 2019
Falkirk Council94%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Preston City Council is a Non-Metropolitan District, 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.

    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
    Waste collection

    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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Preston City Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/preston-city-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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