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West Northamptonshire Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

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Climate pledges

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Climate documents

Last update: Jan. 10, 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

SectionWest Northamptonshire CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score34%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
3/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
4/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
3/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
1/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

1750.1 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.3 tCO2

per person

1.3 ktCO2

per km2

42%

Transport

32%

Domestic

11%

Industry

10%

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 West Northamptonshire 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
Warwickshire County Council91%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Bedford Borough Council86%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Staffordshire County Council86%No2050July 25, 2019
Essex County Council85%Yes2030No
Worcestershire County Council85%No2030July 15, 2021
Gloucestershire County Council84%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council84%Yes2025July 18, 2019
North Northamptonshire Council84%Yes2030July 28, 2021
Suffolk County Council84%Yes2030March 21, 2019
South Kesteven District Council83%Yes2050Sept. 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to West Northamptonshire 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
Warwickshire County Council92%Yes2030July 25, 2019
East Hertfordshire District Council89%Yes2030No
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council89%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Test Valley Borough Council88%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019
Chelmsford City Council88%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Essex County Council86%Yes2030No
Norfolk County Council85%No2030No
Peterborough City Council85%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Mid Sussex District Council84%YesNo targetNo
Bedford Borough Council84%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Oxfordshire County Council95%No2030April 2, 2019
Harborough District Council95%No2030June 24, 2019
Milton Keynes94%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Rugby Borough Council94%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Cherwell District Council94%No2030July 22, 2019
Lancashire County Council94%No2030Feb. 28, 2019
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council94%No2030No
Blaby District Council93%Yes2030No
Leicester City Council93%Yes2030Feb. 1, 2019
Warwickshire County Council93%Yes2030July 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to West Northamptonshire 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
Cheshire West and Chester Council98%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Canterbury City Council97%Yes2030July 18, 2019
West Lancashire Borough Council96%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Chorley Council96%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority95%Yes2050No
Milton Keynes94%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Swindon Borough Council93%Yes2030No
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council92%Yes2030Oct. 8, 2019
Vale of Glamorgan Council92%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Worcestershire County Council91%No2030July 15, 2021

These councils are the most similar to West Northamptonshire 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
Warwickshire County Council99%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Buckinghamshire Council99%No2050No
Hart District Council98%No2040Sept. 1, 2019
Dover District Council98%No2030Nov. 4, 2019
Leicestershire County Council97%No2030May 15, 2019
Conwy County Borough Council97%No2030May 9, 2019
High Peak Borough Council96%Yes2030Oct. 15, 2019
Oxfordshire County Council96%No2030April 2, 2019
Lichfield District Council95%NoNo targetDec. 10, 2019
Wyre Council95%Yes2030July 11, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

West Northamptonshire Council is a Unitary Authority, 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.

    Passenger transport

    Climate actions might include:

    • encouraging bus and private hire operators to use low-emission vehicles, through licensing requirements or Clean Air Zones
    • incentivising bus use by improving routes, timetables, and ticket prices through ‘Enhanced Partnerships’ with operators
    • proposing to central government the development of light rail / tram networks that integrate, rather than compete, with other modes of transport in the area

    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.

    Schools and libraries

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing the carbon footprint of civic buildings through better insulation and renewable energy use
    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
    • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    • encouraging eco-clubs at schools
    • using school land to plant trees and hedgerows, or to grow food

    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
    Transport planning

    Climate actions might include:

    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ like walking and cycling by creating or widening footways and cycleways
    • incentivising Electric Vehicle use by assigning street space to EV charging
    • disincentivising the use of fossil fuel cars through congestion charging,low-traffic neighbourhoods, or the reduction of parking space

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Waste collection and disposal

    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

    westnorthants.gov.uk
    West Northamptonshire Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check West Northamptonshire 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 West Northamptonshire Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: West Northamptonshire Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/west-northamptonshire-council/ [Accessed 28 May 2023].

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