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Vale of White Horse District Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Feb. 13, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2045

“For Vale of White Horse District, the CEAC recommended to reduce carbon emissions by 75% by 2030 and aspire to become a carbon neutral district by 2045, at the latest. These targets were agreed at Cabinet on 6 December 2019.”

Climate documents

Last update: May 4, 2022
Climate Action Plan For Vale Of White Horse District Council 2022-2024

Action Plan · PDF

Vale of White Horse District Council Pre-plan

PDF · We no longer hold a copy of this document

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

Vale of White Horse District 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.

SectionVale of White Horse District CouncilAverage district council
Total score0%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
0/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
0/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
0/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
0/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
0/5
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
0/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

672.5 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.9 tCO2

per person

1.2 ktCO2

per km2

45%

Transport

29%

Domestic

13%

Industry

7%

Commercial

4%

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 Vale of White Horse 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
East Hampshire District Council83%No2050July 18, 2019
West Berkshire Council81%No2030July 2, 2019
West Oxfordshire District Council80%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Winchester City Council80%Yes2024June 5, 2019
South Oxfordshire District Council80%Yes2025April 11, 2019
Lichfield District Council79%NoNo targetDec. 10, 2019
Oxfordshire County Council78%No2030April 2, 2019
East Hertfordshire District Council78%Yes2030No
Waverley Borough Council78%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Guildford Borough Council76%Yes2030July 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Vale of White Horse 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
Lichfield District Council93%NoNo targetDec. 10, 2019
Test Valley Borough Council90%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019
Uttlesford District Council90%Yes2030July 30, 2019
Cambridgeshire County Council88%Yes2050May 14, 2019
Chelmsford City Council85%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Mid Suffolk District Council85%Yes2030July 25, 2019
East Cambridgeshire District Council84%Yes2050Oct. 17, 2019
Stratford-on-Avon District Council84%Yes2030July 15, 2019
East Hampshire District Council84%No2050July 18, 2019
West Northamptonshire Council83%NoNo targetNo
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
West Oxfordshire District Council97%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Oxford City Council96%Yes2030Jan. 28, 2019
West Berkshire Council96%No2030July 2, 2019
Swindon Borough Council95%Yes2030No
South Oxfordshire District Council94%Yes2025April 11, 2019
Cherwell District Council94%No2030July 22, 2019
Oxfordshire County Council93%No2030April 2, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council93%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Cotswold District Council92%NoNo targetJuly 3, 2019
Reading Borough Council92%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Vale of White Horse 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
Rushcliffe Borough Council99%Yes2030March 7, 2019
Rutland County Council99%No2050No
Harborough District Council98%No2030June 24, 2019
Waverley Borough Council98%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Hart District Council97%Yes2040Sept. 1, 2019
Wokingham Borough Council95%Yes2030July 18, 2019
South Cambridgeshire District Council94%Yes2050Nov. 28, 2019
Isles of Scilly94%Yes2030April 11, 2019
East Hertfordshire District Council92%Yes2030No
West Oxfordshire District Council91%Yes2030June 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Vale of White Horse 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
North Lincolnshire Council98%Yes2030No
East Riding of Yorkshire Council96%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Folkestone and Hythe District Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority96%Yes2050No
South Derbyshire District Council95%Yes2030June 27, 2019
Northumberland Council95%Yes2030June 11, 2019
North West Leicestershire District Council95%Yes2030June 25, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council94%Yes2030No
Central Bedfordshire Council93%No2030July 19, 2019
Teignbridge District Council93%Yes2025April 18, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Vale of White Horse 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

    whitehorsedc.gov.uk
    Vale of White Horse District Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Vale of White Horse 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 Vale of White Horse District Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Vale of White Horse District Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/vale-of-white-horse-district-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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