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Watford Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 9, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Within this develop an ambitious sustainability strategy for reducing the Council’s own emissions, with an objective that the Council becomes carbon neutral by 2030”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Sustainability Strategy 2020 To 2023

Climate Strategy · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

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Watford Borough Council Climate Strategy

HTML · We no longer hold a copy of this document

Sustainability Strategy Summary

Summary Document · PDF · Whole Area

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Watford Borough Council Summary Document

HTML · 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

SectionWatford Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score37%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
6/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
2/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
2/4
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
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

284.6 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

2.9 tCO2

per person

13.3 ktCO2

per km2

42%

Domestic

27%

Transport

19%

Commercial

6%

Public Sector

6%

Industry

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 Watford 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
London Borough of Barnet94%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
London Borough of Harrow90%Yes2030July 18, 2019
London Borough of Redbridge88%Yes2050June 20, 2019
Worthing Borough Council86%YesJuly 18, 2019
Reading Borough Council86%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
London Borough of Merton85%No2030July 10, 2019
Rushmoor Borough Council85%Yes2030June 20, 2019
London Borough of Bexley85%NoNo targetNo
London Borough of Havering84%NoNo targetNo
Spelthorne Borough Council84%No2050Oct. 14, 2020

These councils are the most similar to Watford 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
London Borough of Croydon95%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
London Borough of Barnet93%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
London Borough of Sutton92%No2045July 22, 2019
Hastings Borough Council91%No2030Feb. 13, 2019
Ipswich Borough Council91%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council90%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Reading Borough Council90%Yes2030Feb. 26, 2019
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council89%Yes2030July 16, 2019
London Borough of Enfield89%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Ealing89%Yes2030April 2, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Three Rivers District Council99%No2030May 21, 2019
London Borough of Harrow99%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Hertsmere Borough Council98%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019
St Albans City and District Council98%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Hillingdon98%Yes2030Jan. 16, 2020
London Borough of Ealing98%Yes2030April 2, 2019
London Borough of Brent97%No2030July 8, 2019
Dacorum Council97%Yes2050July 17, 2019
London Borough of Barnet97%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
London Borough of Hounslow97%Yes2030No

These councils are the most similar to Watford 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
London Borough of Barnet92%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
City of London92%No2027No
London Borough of Harrow90%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Worthing Borough Council86%YesJuly 18, 2019
London Borough of Bexley86%NoNo targetNo
London Borough of Redbridge85%Yes2050June 20, 2019
London Borough of Havering81%NoNo targetNo
Spelthorne Borough Council80%No2050Oct. 14, 2020
Rushmoor Borough Council80%Yes2030June 20, 2019
London Borough of Hillingdon80%Yes2030Jan. 16, 2020

These councils are the most similar to Watford 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
London Borough of Barnet100%NoNo targetMay 24, 2022
Slough Borough Council100%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Croydon99%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Nottingham City Council99%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
London Borough of Sutton99%No2045July 22, 2019
Liverpool City Council99%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Manchester City Council99%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames98%Yes2038June 25, 2019
Leicester City Council98%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council98%No2030July 18, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Watford 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Watford Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/watford-borough-council/ [Accessed 6 Jun 2023].

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