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Stevenage Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 12, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“On the 12 June 2019, we declared a climate emergency and reconfirmed our commitment to battling climate change by setting a target to ensure Stevenage has net-zero emissions 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

SectionStevenage Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score37%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
6/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
7/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
2/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
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
4/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

307.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.5 tCO2

per person

11.8 ktCO2

per km2

33%

Domestic

27%

Transport

19%

Commercial

14%

Industry

7%

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 Stevenage 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
Slough Borough Council85%YesNo targetNo
Harlow Council85%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Crawley Borough Council81%Yes2040July 17, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council80%Yes2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow79%Yes2030No
Royal Borough of Greenwich79%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Portsmouth City Council79%No2030March 19, 2019
Reading Borough Council78%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
London Borough of Hillingdon78%Yes2030Jan. 16, 2020
London Borough of Ealing77%Yes2030April 2, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Stevenage 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
Torbay Council89%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council86%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority86%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Liverpool City Council84%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council83%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Portsmouth City Council83%No2030March 19, 2019
Salford City Council83%No2038July 17, 2019
Wolverhampton City Council82%No2028July 17, 2019
Gloucester City Council82%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Preston City Council82%No2030April 18, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
North Hertfordshire District Council99%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council98%Yes2030June 19, 2019
East Hertfordshire District Council97%Yes2030No
St Albans City and District Council97%No2030July 9, 2019
Broxbourne Borough Council97%NoNo targetNo
Luton Borough Council97%Yes2040Jan. 13, 2020
Hertsmere Borough Council96%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
Central Bedfordshire Council96%No2030July 19, 2019
London Borough of Enfield96%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Barnet96%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022

These councils are the most similar to Stevenage 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
Harlow Council93%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Slough Borough Council90%YesNo targetNo
Crawley Borough Council90%Yes2040July 17, 2019
London Borough of Hounslow88%Yes2030No
Reading Borough Council76%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Royal Borough of Greenwich76%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Carmarthenshire County Council76%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Boston Borough Council76%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
West Devon Borough Council75%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar75%YesNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to Stevenage 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
Gosport Borough Council100%Yes2050No
Ipswich Borough Council100%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Worthing Borough Council100%YesJuly 18, 2019
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames99%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Derby City Council99%Yes2050May 23, 2019
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council99%NoNo targetJuly 6, 2020
Plymouth City Council99%Yes2030March 18, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council99%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
West Midlands Combined Authority99%No2041June 28, 2019
Kingston-upon-Hull City Council98%No2030March 21, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Stevenage Borough 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Stevenage Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/stevenage-borough-council/ [Accessed 1 Apr 2023].

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