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Swale Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on June 26, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2025

“The action plan outlines the steps the council will take towards making their operation carbon neutral by 2025.”

Whole area pledge for 2030

“The action plan outlines the steps the council will take towards making their operation carbon neutral by 2025, followed by the borough in 2030, in areas including transport, air quality, buildings, ecology and biodiversity, resource consumption and waste.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 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

SectionSwale Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score64%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
13/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
13/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
6/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
2/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

597.2 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.0 tCO2

per person

1.4 ktCO2

per km2

31%

Transport

31%

Domestic

26%

Industry

7%

Commercial

3%

Public Sector

2%

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 Swale 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
Gravesham Borough Council84%No2030June 26, 2019
East Suffolk Council81%No2030July 24, 2019
Tendring District Council81%Yes2030Aug. 6, 2019
Thurrock Council81%No2022Oct. 23, 2019
Kent County Council80%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Dover District Council80%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Ashford Borough Council80%Yes2030No
East Sussex County Council79%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Arun District Council78%No2030Jan. 15, 2020
Fenland District Council78%NoNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to Swale 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
Newport City Council90%Yes2030Nov. 23, 2021
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council86%No2030April 3, 2019
North Somerset Council86%Yes2030Feb. 19, 2019
Wyre Forest District Council85%YesNo targetMay 22, 2019
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council85%No2030Oct. 30, 2019
Gravesham Borough Council84%No2030June 26, 2019
Hyndburn Borough Council83%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Bridgend County Borough Council83%No2030July 22, 2022
Charnwood Borough Council82%Yes2030No
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council82%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council97%No2030July 18, 2019
Ashford Borough Council97%Yes2030No
Maidstone Borough Council97%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Rochford District Council97%Yes2030No
Medway Council97%Yes2050April 25, 2019
Canterbury City Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Castle Point Borough Council96%NoNo targetNo
Folkestone and Hythe District Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Maldon District Council95%No2030Feb. 4, 2021
Gravesham Borough Council95%No2030June 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Swale 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
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council96%Yes2050No
Torfaen County Borough Council95%YesNo targetJune 25, 2019
Caerphilly County Borough Council93%Yes2030June 4, 2019
Durham County Council92%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council91%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Scarborough Borough Council91%No2030Jan. 7, 2019
Ashfield District Council91%NoNo targetNo
Tendring District Council90%Yes2030Aug. 6, 2019
Dover District Council89%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council89%NoNo targetSept. 28, 2022

These councils are the most similar to Swale 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
Worcestershire County Council99%Yes2030July 15, 2021
Rugby Borough Council98%Yes2030July 18, 2019
East Sussex County Council97%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Lewes District Council97%Yes2030July 15, 2019
Tewkesbury Borough Council96%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
Mole Valley District Council96%No2030June 18, 2019
Waverley Borough Council96%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Midlothian Council95%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
Guildford Borough Council95%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council94%Yes2030May 15, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Swale 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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