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Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

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

Whole area pledge for 2030

“The Notice of Motion referred to Cabinet seeks to commit the Council to achieve net-zero for its own operations by 2030 (or earlier) and to Agenda Item No.Report Title – Notice of Motion – Climate Change Emergency Page 2 of 5 Report No: work with all other relevant agencies towards making the Borough net-zero by 2030.”

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

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in the Commitment and integration section.

SectionSouthend-on-Sea Borough CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score56%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
12/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
12/18
9.0/18
Section 3 · Top performer Commitment and integration
7/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
3/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
1/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

491.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.7 tCO2

per person

7.2 ktCO2

per km2

53%

Domestic

27%

Transport

9%

Industry

6%

Commercial

6%

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 Southend-on-Sea Borough 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
London Borough of Croydon86%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council85%Yes2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Barnet84%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Brighton and Hove City Council84%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
London Borough of Enfield84%No2030July 8, 2019
Worthing Borough Council83%YesJuly 18, 2019
London Borough of Harrow83%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Watford Borough Council82%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Sutton81%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Havering81%YesNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to Southend-on-Sea Borough 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
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames90%Yes2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Croydon90%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
London Borough of Bromley89%Yes2027No
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council89%No2030No
London Borough of Harrow89%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Spelthorne Borough Council88%No2050Oct. 14, 2020
South Tyneside Council88%No2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Barnet88%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council88%Yes2035July 23, 2019
London Borough of Sutton87%No2045July 22, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Rochford District Council99%Yes2030No
Castle Point Borough Council98%NoNo targetNo
Maldon District Council98%No2030Feb. 4, 2021
Medway Council98%Yes2050April 25, 2019
Swale Borough Council97%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Basildon Borough Council97%Yes2030No
Chelmsford City Council96%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council96%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Essex County Council96%Yes2030No
Thurrock Council96%No2022Oct. 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Southend-on-Sea Borough 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
Brighton and Hove City Council87%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council86%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
Gosport Borough Council84%Yes2050No
Worcester City Council83%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Bristol City Council83%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Cardiff Council82%Yes2030March 28, 2019
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council82%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Gloucester City Council80%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Plymouth City Council80%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council78%Yes2030July 9, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Southend-on-Sea Borough 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
Birmingham City Council99%No2030June 11, 2019
Bristol City Council99%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Liverpool City Council99%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Nottingham City Council99%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
London Borough of Croydon99%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Slough Borough Council99%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Barnet98%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Watford Borough Council98%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Enfield98%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Bexley98%NoNo targetNo

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Southend-on-Sea Borough 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

    southend.gov.uk
    Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Southend-on-Sea Borough 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 Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/southend-on-sea-borough-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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