Back to all councils

St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 10, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2040

“St Helens Borough Council is aspiring to achieve a zero-carbon target by 2040 and the Council are currently exploring a range of methods in order to achieve its aim.”

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

St Helens Metropolitan Borough 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.

SectionSt Helens Metropolitan Borough CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score0%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

746.3 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.1 tCO2

per person

5.5 ktCO2

per km2

32%

Domestic

25%

Industry

22%

Transport

11%

Commercial

9%

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 St Helens Metropolitan 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
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council79%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Preston City Council76%No2030April 18, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority74%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Chesterfield Borough Council71%Yes2030July 17, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority71%No2040Nov. 7, 2019
Burnley Borough Council71%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Stoke-on-Trent City Council71%NoNo targetJuly 4, 2019
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council71%No2040Sept. 19, 2019
Dundee City Council70%Yes2045June 24, 2019
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council70%No2030Oct. 30, 2019

These councils are the most similar to St Helens Metropolitan 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
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council71%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Dundee City Council68%Yes2045June 24, 2019
Preston City Council65%No2030April 18, 2019
Stevenage Borough Council64%No2030June 12, 2019
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea63%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority63%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Torbay Council62%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Chesterfield Borough Council60%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Torfaen County Borough Council60%YesNo targetJune 25, 2019
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council60%No2040Sept. 19, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council98%Yes2040Jan. 29, 2020
Halton Borough Council97%YesNo targetOct. 16, 2019
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council97%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority97%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Warrington Borough Council96%Yes2030June 7, 2019
Liverpool City Council96%Yes2030July 17, 2019
West Lancashire Borough Council95%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Chorley Council95%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Cheshire West and Chester Council94%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council94%Yes2030Aug. 29, 2019

These councils are the most similar to St Helens Metropolitan 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
Mansfield District Council97%No2040March 5, 2019
Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council95%No2037July 16, 2019
Pendle Borough Council92%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council92%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Sunderland City Council92%Yes2030March 27, 2019
Peterborough City Council92%Yes2030July 24, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority92%No2040Nov. 7, 2019
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council92%No2030Oct. 30, 2019
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council91%No2040Sept. 19, 2019
Preston City Council91%No2030April 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to St Helens Metropolitan 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
Leeds City Council98%No2030March 27, 2019
Bradford Metropolitan District Council98%Yes2030Jan. 15, 2019
Three Rivers District Council96%No2030May 21, 2019
Aberdeen City Council96%Yes2045No
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Thanet District Council96%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council95%Yes2030No
Chesterfield Borough Council95%Yes2030July 17, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council is a 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.

    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

    sthelens.gov.uk
    St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check St Helens Metropolitan 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 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

    What do you want from Climate Action Plans?

    Help us improve this page by answering our short survey about who uses this service, and what makes action plans useful to you.

    Open survey


    Don’t have time right now? Let us know your email address, and we’ll send you a link to the survey in a few days.

    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/st-helens-metropolitan-borough-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

    Alpha

    This is a new service – your feedback will help us improve it.