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Thanet District Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 11, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Do what is within our powers and resources to make Thanet District Council carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production and consumption emissions.”

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

SectionThanet District CouncilAverage district council
Total score58%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
12/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
7/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
1/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

487.2 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.4 tCO2

per person

4.3 ktCO2

per km2

38%

Domestic

24%

Transport

22%

Agriculture

7%

Commercial

6%

Industry

3%

Public Sector

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 Thanet District 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
Epping Forest District Council54%Yes2030Sept. 19, 2019
Swale Borough Council53%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Kent County Council52%Yes2030May 23, 2019
East Sussex County Council52%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Hastings Borough Council51%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019
Arun District Council51%No2030Jan. 15, 2020
Dover District Council51%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Lancashire County Council51%No2030Feb. 28, 2019
Medway Council50%Yes2050April 25, 2019
Tendring District Council50%Yes2030Aug. 6, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Thanet District 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
Torridge District Council75%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Dumfries and Galloway Council62%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Orkney Islands Council61%YesNo targetMay 14, 2019
Shetland Islands Council60%YesNo targetJan. 22, 2020
North Devon Council60%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Mid Devon District Council58%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Richmondshire District Council57%Yes2030July 23, 2019
East Ayrshire Council57%No2030No
Isle of Anglesey County Council56%Yes2030Sept. 8, 2020
Scottish Borders Council55%Yes2045Sept. 5, 2020
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Dover District Council98%Yes2030Nov. 4, 2019
Canterbury City Council97%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council95%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Swale Borough Council94%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Ashford Borough Council93%Yes2030No
Tendring District Council93%Yes2030Aug. 6, 2019
Rochford District Council93%Yes2030No
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council92%No2030July 18, 2019
Maldon District Council92%No2030Feb. 4, 2021
Colchester Borough Council91%Yes2030July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Thanet District 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
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council95%Yes2040Sept. 18, 2019
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council92%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Great Yarmouth Borough Council91%NoNo targetNo
West Dunbartonshire Council91%Yes2045May 29, 2019
North East Combined Authority90%NoNo targetNov. 5, 2019
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council90%NoNo targetSept. 28, 2022
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council89%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Sunderland City Council88%Yes2030March 27, 2019
East Lindsey District Council87%Yes2040No
Peterborough City Council87%Yes2030July 24, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Thanet District 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 Council97%No2030March 27, 2019
Three Rivers District Council97%No2030May 21, 2019
West of England Combined Authority96%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Milton Keynes96%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2040June 10, 2019
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority96%No2040Nov. 7, 2019
Bradford Metropolitan District Council96%Yes2030Jan. 15, 2019
Welwyn Hatfield Council95%Yes2030June 19, 2019
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council95%Yes2030May 23, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Thanet District 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

    thanet.gov.uk
    Thanet District Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Thanet District 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 Thanet District Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Thanet District Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/thanet-district-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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