Resource Type: Guidance

The Local Energy Supply Guides from Ynni Cymru are available in English and Welsh and provide practical, accessible information to help organisations explore local energy supply opportunities and make better use of locally generated renewable energy. The guidance covers the key regulatory, commercial and technical considerations involved in developing local energy supply projects, helping organisations understand the options available and assess potential approaches.

The guides cover Behind-the-Meter Energy Systems, Private Wire Energy Systems and Licence Exempt Electricity Supply. They explain how each model works, the opportunities it may offer, and the factors organisations should consider before progressing a project. The guidance is designed for local authorities, public sector organisations, SMEs, voluntary and charitable organisations, community energy organisations, renewable energy developers and others interested in retaining more value from renewable energy within local communities.

In addition to our Climate Adaptation Toolkit for Local Authorities,the first of our sector specific accompanying guidance is the Strategic Resilience and Adaptation Guidance for Local Highways Authorities

This guidance suite has been produced by Local Partnerships alongside associated guidance developed by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (Operational Framework Guidance, and Operational Checklists Responding to climate disruption).

The content has been co-created with the sector and draws on a range of key sources including the Department for Transport’s Transport Hazard Summaries, outputs from the UK Roads Liaison Group’s 2025 regional resilience workshops, and an expert review workshop held at CIHT on 8 June 2026.

This guidance follows the approach in the Climate Adaptation Toolkit for Local Authorities, and is best used alongside this toolkit, the CIHT operation guidance and the Met Office Local Authority Climate Service (LACS)

The “Safe & Legal: Preparing for LGR and Vesting Day” Tool helps councils undergoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) identify the essential actions needed to ensure a new unitary authority is ready to operate from day one.

The tool provides a practical framework covering the key governance, legal, financial, workforce, ICT and service continuity requirements needed to ensure statutory services continue, legal obligations are met and the new council can operate safely and effectively on Vesting Day.

Designed for use by implementation bodies throughout the transition period, the tool helps councils assess readiness, identify gaps and prioritise action to ensure a smooth and compliant transition.

Local Partnerships, with funding and support from the Greater South East Net Zero Hub, has developed much needed commercial guidance for prospective heat networks customers. The government wants to see heat networks grow from 3% of the UK’s heat market to 20% by 2050, with public sector customers a big part of this growth.

The ‘Preparing for the Procurement Act’ guidance aims to support councils in preparing for the implementation of the Procurement Act 2023.

The guidance contains an overview of its core purpose, a checklist of key activity to make sure you are on track for delivery and a profile on how the workforce may need to change. The guide was produced in partnership with Michael Page Recruiting.

Business case related member decisions

It has always been important that significant investment and transformation decisions are subject to rigorous challenge and are evidence based. The increasing pressure on councils’ finances over recent years has only served to make it even more vital that well written and presented reports for members relating to complex business cases are developed by officers to ensure sound decision making by councils.

This business case related member decision document provides good practice guidance for officers regarding how best to develop and present a report for members to make a significant decision.

Climate Action Plan: Decarbonisation and Helping schools to decarbonise

Schools collectively spent £630m per year on energy costs in 2019, which is likely to be higher with current prices1.  They are responsible for 24% of all public sector building emissions in England2 and, following the launch of the Department for Education’s sustainability and climate change strategy, will be required to have a climate action plan in place by 2025.  

While many schools sit outside of a local authority’s direct control, they are a significant contributor towards your area-based and/or Scope 3 emissions. So how can local authorities support schools to reduce costs and emissions? 

Local Partnerships has collaborated with the Energy Systems Catapult and Ashden to develop decarbonisation guidance for schools’ sustainability leads, be that operational staff, teachers or school governors.  

This Commercial guidance and toolkit is intended to take councils through a structured and robust approach to considering commercial activity.
Following this introduction, there is an overview of key overarching considerations setting out what commercial means for councils and how this can be achieved.

The overview is followed by five stages representing a commercial journey. These cover the commercial lifecycle from developing a commercial strategy through to reviewing success and addressing issues that reviews may highlight. Below each of these main sections there is more detailed guidance providing additional information around subjects such as the skills, capability, culture and structure of your service/s.

Our FREE CEO Blueprint is designed to enable CEOs to feel confident they have all the bases covered when it comes to council commerciality. Download below.

The CEO Blueprint supports CEOs of all council types and sizes when overseeing commercial activity irrespective of the end outcomes they are seeking to deliver. The key purpose is to maximise the chances of success.

Our Sourcing Playbook Webinar was to share the learning from our DLUHC funded Hands-On Sourcing Support Programme, through which 16 councils were supported to put the sourcing playbook into practice.

We were joined by DLUHC and some of the participating councils to discuss how the Sourcing Playbook can best be used by local government and reflect on key lessons learned from the experience. There was plenty of opportunities for audience Q&A to ensure that practical advice could be taken away in the areas that matter to you.

In the years since its initial launch as the “Outsourcing Playbook”, the Sourcing Playbook has been iterated to ensure it reflects best practice and is as useful a guide as possible. While written primarily for a central government audience, the core best practice is relevant across the public sector. This webinar will help to bring to life the benefits of the Sourcing Playbook, and how best it can be relied on through hearing from peers about their experiences putting the playbook in to practice.

Local Partnerships was commissioned by Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) to produce this ‘Energy Supply guidance’ under the ‘Unlocking Clean Energy in Greater Manchester’ (UCEGM) project.

UCEGM is a pioneering scheme designed to deliver a number of renewable energy projects across the Greater Manchester City Region and create a blueprint that can be replicated in other regions across the UK aiming for Net Zero carbon emissions.

The guidance addresses challenges faced by local authorities, such as rising energy costs and the need for effective energy management policies. It emphasises the importance of forecasting, developing energy management policies, and understanding energy purchasing strategies. Use our forecasting tool to assist energy managers in predicting future energy consumption. The document highlights the impact of global events on energy prices, the significance of energy security, and the shift towards renewable energy to meet net zero targets. Funding options for energy efficiency projects are discussed, including recommendations from the Mission Zero initiative.

This is an updated version of “Renewable Energy Good Practice Guidance”, originally published in September 2020 to provide additional information in relation to industry and policy changes. This guide has been updated to help both members and officers of local authorities who are considering asset ownership to understand the potential risks and benefits and how these can be managed.

LATCo guidance – Local authority company review guidance

The toolkit, Local authority company review guidance, is for undertaking strategic and governance reviews of wholly or partly owned council commercial entities – 2023 edition.

A tool to help councils ensure that they strike an appropriate balance between allowing a company the freedom to manage its activities and ensuring that it is accountable for its actions.

Jane Forshaw, presents the webinar: “Effective approaches for integrating fleet budgeton” behalf of the Welsh Government Energy Service, hosted a webinar to help attendees navigate the financial aspects of transition towards a zero emission fleet, with speakers from Nottingham City Council, Monmouthshire County Council and Powys County Council.

As part of our work with the Welsh Government Energy Service, we have helped to produce guidance for engaging with stakeholders when developing decarbonisation projects in the public sector.