Reform-run council scraps Net Zero target and climate emergency declaration

The Reform-run council also scrapped its Net Zero by 2030 target, which the previous Conservative administration had committed to alongside its climate emergency declaration in 2019.

The move comes as Havering Council is poised to reverse its own climate emergency declaration at a full council meeting next week.

According to Newcastle-under-Lyme, the move will help save £6.2m by cancelling plans to replace its waste collection fleet with electric vehicles.

It said this move would save more than £2m in direct costs and a further £4.2 million on the required charging infrastructure.

Officers have now been asked to review all remaining spending linked to the previous climate change and Net Zero programme. Where money has not been legally committed, or does not provide value for money, it will be stopped, saved, or redirected to frontline services, the council said.

Cllr Jonathan Gullis, Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, said: "The previous administration wanted electric bin lorries. What they didn't budget for was the £4.2 million needed to charge them. That's the difference between political posturing and common sense.

"This Council will not spend residents' money on Net Zero virtue signalling when bins need collecting, streets need cleaning and communities need keeping safe."

He insisted that rescinding the declaration does not mean the council will stop caring about the environment, adding: "We'll meet our legal obligations and protecting our valued parks and green spaces, because that's what residents actually asked for."

The move has drawn criticism from advocacy group Climate Emergency UK, which advises councils on decarbonisation programmes and ranks local authorities' climate action efforts every year.

Isaac Beevor, Partnerships Director at Climate Emergency UK, told Local Government Lawyer that local climate action benefits local residents, businesses and councils, adding: "This is because net zero is about common-sense solutions that protect our energy bills and make our local communities stronger.

"Investing in solutions like electric bin lorries brings cleaner air for residents and workers, saves hundreds of thousands in buying expensive diesel, and reduces emissions.

"By scrapping climate action, Newcastle-under-Lyme Council have just become less resilient against oil price shocks and they will keep wasting money on buying expensive diesel for the next decade."

Newcastle-under-Lyme joins a number of other Reform-run councils to have already rescinded their climate emergency declarations.

Havering Council is scheduled to vote on a motion to rescind its climate emergency declaration on Wednesday (22 July).

The motion, proposed on behalf of the council's Reform group, says the framing of local environmental policy through a climate emergency declaration can create a policy direction that is “disproportionate, financially burdensome and insufficiently balanced against the Council's wider responsibilities”.

Adam Carey