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Planning, building and the environment

'Global Warming, Local Leadership'

Date of speech	4 April 2007

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Draft text of the speech - may differ from the delivered version.

Introduction

Thank you Steve. And let me start by congratulating Green Alliance on their impressive record in raising the profile of climate change and improving the quality of our public debate.

I am really glad to have this opportunity to speak to so many people from local government, whose role in tackling climate change is, I think, often overlooked and sometimes misunderstood - but always vital.

I think that climate change is one of the defining global challenges of our age.

The case for action has been established beyond doubt.

This is not solely an environmental issue, but also about social justice and the economy as well.

Action at every level

Everyone has their part to play - internationally, nationally, and locally. 

Tackling climate change requires Governments to take leadership and work responsibly together across borders. 

The recent European agreement to cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 is a powerful demonstration of the progress that can be made through collective action at the international level.

And it shows what can be achieved by a Government committed to working co-operatively with our European partners.

Government must also show leadership at the national level, by setting a long term policy framework which establishes clearly the rights and responsibilities of not just the state, but of citizens, communities and businesses.

That is why David Miliband published the Climate Change Bill which will set in law our targets to cut carbon emissions 60 per cent by 2050, and establishes a mechanism to hold Government to account if we fail to achieve them.

It is through leadership at the local level, however, that I believe many of the key steps towards a low carbon economy will ultimately take place.

For it is here that the everyday lives, decisions and behaviour of local people and communities are often best challenged and changed.

Communities and Local Government

But first let me discuss the role of my Department in tackling climate change.

Climate change is now an issue for every Government department, not just Defra. 

And my department - Communities and Local Government, is no exception.

I want us to be an environmental department, as well as a social and economic one.

And I want green issues to be at the heart of what we do and how we do it. 

In particular, I think, we have a major contribution to make on two fronts.

First, through building and planning regulations we can green the built environment all around us - from our homes, to offices, to public buildings. 

Secondly, through setting the framework for local government to work with communities, to raise local ambition and harness the potential for change.

I believe that we can only make the progress we need towards a low-carbon future if we take serious steps in both of these areas.

And today I want to explain how.

The built environment

First, the built environment.

Energy use in our homes and offices accounts for nearly half of our national carbon emissions. And the transport we use to travel between them accounts for another third.

So greening our built environment represents a huge opportunity.

We've already taken a number of significant steps to set the right long term policy framework.

The first step is to embed measures to tackle climate change within our planning system. 

The draft Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change that I published at the end of last year puts climate change right at the heart of the planning process. 

It means planning for communities where people have better access to public transport, and rely less on their cars. 

It means making sure that substantial new developments use low-carbon energy. 

And it means making provision for the green spaces that help towns and cities stay cooler in hot weather.

Making planning greener is an opportunity - and a challenge - that I hope the planning profession will grasp. 

And as we build the homes that people that people want to live in, the Government wants to show just what is possible with new developments like the Thames Gateway - which we intend to be a testbed for action on climate change.

I am also delighted to launch today a consultation on microgeneration. Our proposals give people greater freedom to install microgeneration devices - such as solar panels - on their homes where it is clear there is little or no impact on neighbouring properties.

These green technologies can help keep fuel bills down, and can even allow households to earn a small amount by selling back excess electricity.

Indeed, research suggests that by 2050, microgeneration could help cut domestic carbon emissions by some 15 per cent. 

But we will only achieve this level of take-up if we make sure that people have the right incentives.

Currently, when people want to install microgeneration, they can face a wait of up to three months and hundreds of pounds in costs.

We need changes to ensure the system is more proportionate - whilst retaining clear, common-sense safeguards on noise, siting and size.

And I will make sure that local authorities retain the right to restrict planning permission in exceptional circumstances where the benefit of the technology is clearly questionable.

I am keen that people think carefully about the technology that is best suited to their local area, and not about what's the latest fashion accessory.

The second step to making our built environment greener is to ratchet up building standards. 

Our review of Building Control will help strengthen the system and ensure compliance with all regulations. But we need to tighten standards, too.

We started with our homes, which account for more than a quarter of our carbon emissions.

Last December, working with the WWF and housebuilders, Yvette Cooper and I announced an ambitious timetable for progressive improvements to building regulations so that new homes will be zero carbon by 2016.

This will be supported by the Chancellor's Budget decision to exempt new zero carbon homes from stamp duty from this October.

It is also supported by the Code for Sustainable Homes , which comes into force this week.

The Code tells consumers how their home performs across a range of environmental measures. 

And I aim to make this a mandatory rating for all new homes from April next year. 

Our proposals on the Code and the draft PPS have stimulated an important debate about the respective roles of central and local government in driving up higher green standards for new homes.

Let me be clear. We want local authorities to innovate. 

And we understand that some local authorities want to move more quickly to deliver higher environmental standards. I think this can be very beneficial. For example, the Merton rule, with its minimum standards for the amount of renewable energy in substantial new developments, has set a positive trend in many local authorities.

But we also want builders and developers to have a degree of certainty about the future standards they will be judged by so that they can innovate and invest to get us there.

So if local authorities want to take their own approach that should be set out and tested through the local development plan process in the usual way.

In particular, authorities should show how higher environmental standards are consistent with delivering the homes that local people so desperately need. 

There is clearly a balance to be struck. And I believe that our approach - of constrained local flexibility, within a clear long-term framework - is in this instance the right one. But I would very much welcome your views.

New homes are important. But it is also vital to improve the existing stock, where the worst performing homes are found. 

We've already achieved a lot here. The energy efficiency of our housing stock is improving year on year - particularly in the social stock, thanks to our massive programme of investment in Decent Homes. 

Emissions from homes actually fell by around 4 million tonnes of carbon last year. But we need to do much more to achieve our climate change targets.

We will be introducing Energy Performance Certificates for all homes that are bought, sold and rented from June this year. 

This will provide real information to households about the energy performance of their home and the things they can do to improve it.

And the Budget also announced that we would put in place measures so that, where practicably possible, within a decade all homes will have taken the steps, like fitting insulation, that are not only environmentally friendly, but can pay for themselves through reduced energy bills.  

We will set out how we will achieve this in the Energy White Paper, which will be published later this year.

Having made a strong start on homes, we should now be looking at non-residential buildings - like offices, and shops - that are responsible for 18 per cent of our national carbon emissions. 

I want to work with industry to deliver major improvements in the energy efficiency of non-domestic buildings over the next ten to fifteen years. 

Increasingly, socially responsible commercial enterprises are recognising that they cannot ignore the impact they have - and that they will be judged on it by consumers and investors.  Many are leading the way in carbon management.

We want to build on that momentum. So Yvette Cooper is working with key industry figures through a new Green Commercial Buildings Group to define a challenging long-term ambition on carbon emissions.  

This will send a strong signal to industry - and support those that are prepared to move ahead and show leadership.

Working with Local Government

I have set out our approach on the built environment.

The second key way my department can have an impact on climate change is by working with local government.

As many of you will doubtless appreciate, local government can have a massive impact on climate change.

Take cities alone. Just looking at England's eight largest cities outside London shows what could be achieved, simply by building on best practice. 

If all eight of the core cities outside of London had emissions per capita of that of the best, [Bristol] - this would save 4.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide - which is nearly 1 per cent of the UK's emissions.

I believe there are several ways local Government can play its part. 

It can lead local debate, raising awareness about of climate change and helping to change people's attitudes and behaviour.

It can set up partnerships, such as with Energy Services Companies, to deliver not just units of energy, but the good advice and practical measures such as insulation that help keep people warm.

It can lead by example, cutting the carbon footprint of its own estate and influencing local partners. Woking has led the way in this area. As a result, it has cut carbon emissions from its council buildings by three quarters, saving about seven hundred thousand pounds each year.

Local government can act imaginatively within the broader frameworks set out by central government, for example in housing, planning and transport.

Crucially, however, local government can also work directly with individuals and communities to help them take action themselves.

This might mean supporting individuals in making positive choices, for example by making recycling easier or improving local bus services.

There is huge potential here. Citizens are already demonstrating that they are prepared to be ambitious about climate change - and the growing interest in microgeneration is one illustration of this. However, I also believe that there is a huge untapped resource in collective action by communities. There are already some striking examples.

In Cheshire for example, the residents of Ashton Hayes have come together to set the goal of becoming the country's first-carbon neutral village, and are being supported in this aim by the local authority.

And they are not alone. Already there is a growing network of like-minded communities, such as Chew Magna village with its Go Zero initiative.

Local government can - and must - support communities in these efforts. This might mean simply showing the local community that they are not acting alone: that each individual's actions are reciprocated many times over in their street or their ward. And when people act together in that way it can make everyone feel a part of tackling climate change and spur them on to greater efforts, and greater commitment.

In some areas, local government is already leading the debate and responding to citizens' concerns. In fact, in many places local government has been ahead of national government in the action it has taken.

It is Government's job - and the job of my Department - to enable local innovation and leadership, not only by getting the national frameworks right, but also by providing the flexibility for local government to respond to local circumstances and communities.

As many of you will know, our Local Government White Paper published last autumn was a landmark in rebalancing relations between central and local government, and between local government, its communities and partners.

The White Paper reflected our belief that local government is ready to take greater responsibility for its own local priorities, and our commitment to making a huge reduction in central costs and controls.

And for me, climate change is the first real test of this new relationship for both central government and local government.

On the part of central government, we must demonstrate that we have moved away from our old habits and instincts of setting the same blunt duties or targets everywhere, regardless of local circumstances.

In the new arrangements, climate change will have be central in the new performance framework. 

That means it will feature amongst the 200 performance indicators that local government will sign up to as part of local area agreements.

But let me be clear. We will monitoring progress through the 200 national indicators. We will intervene where there are serious failings.

Hence the challenge is also to local government. We are putting our trust in local authorities to have the expertise and leadership to deal with the big policy challenges. 

First, local government must demonstrate that it is ready and willing to take ownership of these issues without being told exactly what to do and how to do it.

And secondly it is up to local government to show it is ready to respond to the appetite for action on climate change already being demonstrated by individuals and communities. In the future, citizens will have new ways to raise these issues with the local authority. For example, if people were unhappy with their local recycling service, they could use the call for action to press for change. As we loosen the control from the centre, we are providing ways for bottom up pressures to be expressed, and local government must be ready.

Looking ahead, it is clear that although there has been significant action by some, there is more that local government can do.

With 200 authorities now signed up to the Nottingham Declaration, there is a growing momentum behind new ways of thinking. 

But this is just a first step. We need more councils to live up to their role as community leaders and strategic partners when it comes to climate change.

And I would be interested to know if councils believe the Nottingham declaration is still ambitious enough - or if we should be looking to move towards a Nottingham Plus.

On all these points, I welcome the establishment of the LGA's Climate Change Commission which will look at what more councils can do.

And I welcome the fact that growing numbers of local authorities are including low carbon goals in their Local Area Agreements or Sustainable Community Strategies.

In the second round of Local Area Agreements, 56 per cent had targets relating to climate change or energy. By the third round that figure had risen to 68 per cent. 

Conclusion

I am confident that local government can be trusted to get on with delivering what matters.

And there could be no better opportunity for local government to step up to the challenge and build on its historic-place shaping role in a modern context. 

This is a real opportunity for local government. Step up to it. Seize it. And show us just what you can do.

Our review of Building Control will help strengthen the system and ensure compliance with all regulations. But we need to tighten standards, too.

Speech by Ruth Kelly MP on 4 April 2007.