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Wiltshire Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on Feb. 26, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Wiltshire Council acknowledged a climate emergency in February 2019 and committed to becoming carbon neutral as an organisation by 2030. We are investing money to achieve this and are fully committed. We will also support Wiltshire to work towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Climate Strategy 2022-2027

Climate Strategy · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

Show more climate strategy documents
Wiltshire Council Climate Strategy

PDF · We no longer hold a copy of this document

Wiltshire Council Summary Document

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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

Wiltshire Council was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in two sections including Community, engagement and communications.

SectionWiltshire CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score81%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
13/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
17/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
4.1/7
Section 4 · Top performer Community, engagement and communications
9/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
4/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
2.3/5
Section 9 · Top performer Ecological emergency
4/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

2102.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.2 tCO2

per person

0.6 ktCO2

per km2

38%

Transport

32%

Domestic

13%

Industry

7%

Commercial

5%

Agriculture

5%

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 Wiltshire 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
Wychavon District Council86%Yes2050No
Dorset Council86%No2040May 16, 2019
Stafford Borough Council85%No2040July 23, 2019
Warwickshire County Council84%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council83%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Cherwell District Council82%No2030July 22, 2019
Oxfordshire County Council82%No2030April 2, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council82%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Test Valley Borough Council82%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019
East Devon District Council82%Yes2040July 24, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Wiltshire 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
Stafford Borough Council91%No2040July 23, 2019
Lincolnshire County Council89%Yes2050No
East Lothian Council88%No2045Aug. 27, 2019
Wychavon District Council88%Yes2050No
North Kesteven District Council88%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Vale of Glamorgan Council88%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Somerset County Council87%No2030Feb. 20, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council87%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Somerset West and Taunton Council85%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
North of Tyne Combined Authority85%YesNo targetMay 7, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Swindon Borough Council94%Yes2030No
Test Valley Borough Council92%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019
Cotswold District Council91%NoNo targetJuly 3, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council91%Yes2030March 14, 2019
New Forest District Council91%NoNo targetNov. 6, 2021
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council91%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Stroud District Council91%No2030Dec. 13, 2018
South Gloucestershire Council91%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Vale of White Horse District Council90%Yes2045Feb. 13, 2019
Mendip District Council90%Yes2030Feb. 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Wiltshire 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
Selby District Council99%Yes2030No
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council98%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Huntingdonshire District Council98%No2040No
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council98%No2030July 16, 2019
New Forest District Council98%NoNo targetNov. 6, 2021
Orkney Islands Council98%YesNo targetMay 14, 2019
Melton Borough Council97%No2030July 17, 2019
East Cambridgeshire District Council97%Yes2050Oct. 17, 2019
Cambridgeshire County Council97%Yes2050May 14, 2019
South Staffordshire Council97%YesNo targetSept. 10, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Wiltshire 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
Somerset County Council99%No2030Feb. 20, 2019
Dorset Council96%No2040May 16, 2019
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council96%NoNo targetSept. 9, 2019
Wealden District Council96%Yes2050July 24, 2019
Carmarthenshire County Council95%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Norfolk County Council95%No2030No
Sedgemoor District Council95%Yes2030March 20, 2019
Monmouthshire County Council94%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Lincolnshire County Council94%Yes2050No
Rother District Council93%No2030Sept. 16, 2019

Powers & Responsibilities

Wiltshire 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

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

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    Cite this page

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

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