Back to all councils

Woking Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 25, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Pledge to make Woking Borough Council, its wholly-owned companies and conntractors carbon neutral by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 2022
Woking Borough Council Progress Report

PDF
Woking Borough Council Climate Strategy

PDF · Approved · Whole Area
Woking Borough Council Action Plan

HTML · Approved · Whole Area
Woking Borough Council Summary Document

PDF

Are these plans out of date?

Fill in this form to let us know where to find the latest plans from this council.

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

Woking Borough Council was a top performer amongst district councils, in the Measuring and setting emissions targets section.

SectionWoking Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score70%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
11/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
17/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
7/9
4.7/9
Section 5 · Top performer Measuring and setting emissions targets
5/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

373.9 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.7 tCO2

per person

5.9 ktCO2

per km2

38%

Domestic

24%

Industry

23%

Transport

11%

Commercial

3%

Public Sector

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 Woking 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 Bromley88%Yes2027No
Fareham Borough Council86%Yes2030Oct. 24, 2019
Bracknell Forest Council86%Yes2050No
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council86%No2030No
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council86%Yes2030No
St Albans City and District Council85%No2030July 9, 2019
Rochford District Council85%Yes2030No
Eastleigh Borough Council84%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Three Rivers District Council84%No2030May 21, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council84%Yes2030July 16, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Woking 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
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council90%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Erewash Borough Council90%No2050No
South Tyneside Council89%No2030July 18, 2019
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council89%No2030No
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council89%Yes2038Jan. 30, 2019
Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council89%No2038Feb. 24, 2020
West Yorkshire Combined Authority88%No2038June 27, 2019
Castle Point Borough Council88%NoNo targetNo
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council88%No2030March 28, 2019
Cannock Chase District Council88%No2030July 17, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Surrey County Council99%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Guildford Borough Council99%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Runnymede Borough Council99%NoNo targetOct. 17, 2019
Surrey Heath Borough Council98%Yes2030Oct. 9, 2019
Spelthorne Borough Council98%No2050Oct. 14, 2020
Elmbridge Borough Council98%No2030July 17, 2019
Waverley Borough Council97%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Slough Borough Council97%YesNo targetNo
Hertfordshire County Council97%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Bracknell Forest Council97%Yes2050No

These councils are the most similar to Woking 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
Eastleigh Borough Council99%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council97%Yes2030No
Bracknell Forest Council96%Yes2050No
Blaby District Council94%Yes2030No
City of York Council94%Yes2030March 11, 2019
Surrey County Council93%Yes2030July 9, 2019
East Dunbartonshire Council92%Yes2045No
Three Rivers District Council92%No2030May 21, 2019
Brentwood Borough Council92%No2040No
Warwick District Council92%No2030June 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Woking 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
Fareham Borough Council100%Yes2030Oct. 24, 2019
Adur District Council100%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council99%No2030Dec. 4, 2019
Broxtowe Borough Council99%Yes2027July 17, 2019
Basildon Borough Council99%Yes2030No
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council99%Yes2038July 17, 2019
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council99%No2025Sept. 11, 2019
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council99%Yes2040Jan. 29, 2020
Sheffield City Council98%Yes2050Feb. 6, 2019
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council98%Yes2030July 18, 2019

Features

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

Comprehensive plan for mitigation

Powers & Responsibilities

Woking 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

    woking.gov.uk
    Woking Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Woking 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 Woking Borough 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.

    Open survey

    Don’t have time right now? Let us know your email address, and we’ll send you a link to the survey in a few days.

    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Woking Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/woking-borough-council/ [Accessed 24 Mar 2023].

    Alpha

    This is a new service – your feedback will help us improve it.