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Westmorland and Furness Council

New council

This council was created in April 1, 2023. It may not have any specific plans yet. Plans and declarations may have been made by former councils.

This council replaced:

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

We don’t think this council has declared a climate emergency – let us know if it has!

Climate pledges

We haven’t checked whether this council has made any climate pledges yet, but we will soon. If you’ve already found one, let us know!

Climate documents

We couldn’t find any climate action plans for this council.

These councils are the most similar to Westmorland and Furness 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
Cumberland Council77%NoNo
Northumberland Council77%Yes2030June 11, 2019
North Yorkshire Council77%NoNo
Wrexham County Borough Council74%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council74%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
South Ayrshire Council73%No2045No
Wyre Council72%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Monmouthshire County Council72%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council71%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Angus Council71%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Westmorland and Furness 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
Pembrokeshire County Council76%Yes2030May 9, 2019
Wrexham County Borough Council72%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council72%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
South Ayrshire Council72%No2045No
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council71%Yes2030July 10, 2019
North Yorkshire Council71%NoNo
North Norfolk District Council71%Yes2030April 24, 2019
Rutland County Council70%No2050No
Cumberland Council70%NoNo
Monmouthshire County Council69%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Lancaster City Council93%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
Cumberland Council91%NoNo
Wyre Council91%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Blackpool Borough Council89%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Preston City Council89%No2030April 18, 2019
Fylde Borough Council89%NoNo targetNo
Ribble Valley Borough Council88%No2030No
South Ribble Borough Council87%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Chorley Council85%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
West Lancashire Borough Council85%Yes2030July 17, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Westmorland and Furness 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
Bedford Borough Council98%Yes2030March 5, 2019
North Northamptonshire Council97%Yes2030July 28, 2021
Nottinghamshire County Council95%No2030May 27, 2021
West Lothian Council95%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Kent County Council94%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Wyre Council94%Yes2030July 11, 2019
East Sussex County Council94%No2050Oct. 15, 2019
East Staffordshire Borough Council92%Yes2040Aug. 17, 2020
Fife Council92%Yes2045Sept. 26, 2019
West Lindsey District Council92%No2050No

These councils are the most similar to Westmorland and Furness 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 Devon Council99%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Chichester District Council97%Yes2025July 9, 2019
Rother District Council96%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary96%No2030May 16, 2019
Devon County Council96%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
North Yorkshire Council95%NoNo
East Devon District Council94%Yes2040July 24, 2019
Cornwall Council (Unitary)93%Yes2030Jan. 22, 2019
East Ayrshire Council93%No2030No
Norfolk County Council93%No2030No

Powers & Responsibilities

Westmorland and Furness 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

    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Westmorland and Furness 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 Westmorland and Furness Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

    What do you want from Climate Action Plans?

    Help us improve this page by answering our short survey about who uses this service, and what makes action plans useful to you.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Westmorland and Furness Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/westmorland-and-furness-council/ [Accessed 9 Jun 2023].

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