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The newly released report, Constructing Consensus: The case for community-powered development and regeneration, presents evidence and insights from current practices, showing that when local communities are involved early and meaningfully in housing and regeneration projects, they tend to support new developments and demonstrate real ambition.

The report outlines strategies to overcome the adversarial planning process that often pits communities against councils and developers, enabling development to proceed more efficiently, while delivering both the quantity and quality of housing needed.

Key recommendations include empowering local authorities, enhancing community participation in planning, and revising policies to support community-led development. The report proposes a shift toward a more collaborative approach, ensuring that communities have a voice in shaping the future of their local areas.

Commercial waste services are a vital component of effective Recycling and Waste Management strategies, directly influencing the reputation, operational efficiency, and financial health of local authorities.

Optimising these services can lead to significant improvements in performance and financial outcomes for local councils.

The Commercial Waste Toolkit is designed to support local authorities in evaluating and enhancing their commercial waste operations. A well-structured commercial waste service not only enhances service delivery but also drives profitability, market share, and adaptability to future policy changes. At Local Partnerships, we have a proven track record of helping local authorities successfully navigate these critical transitions.

The prioritisation matrix is an invaluable tool designed to assist decision-makers in identifying the most promising change projects to advance.

Through Local Partnerships transformation offer, we supported more than 15 authorities in 2023. Our work ranged from developing practical tools and conducting options analyses to providing strategic support, consistently driving impactful and informed decision-making.

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.  

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.

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.

Together, the Energy Systems Catapult and Local Partnerships have produced a series of business case templates, specifically for use by local authorities planning local energy projects.

The templates, also available on Net Zero Go, aim to provide a framework for structured thinking with section headings, guidance notes, draft text, graphs and tables and suggested workshop sessions to assist in the development and sign off of local energy projects.

The templates are based upon the HM Treasury Green Book Five Case Model. They seek to follow and build upon the Better Business Case Guidance and Local Partnerships experience of support the development of these projects.

Templates available include:

• Heat Networks Strategic Outline Case
• Solar PV Strategic Outline Case
• Retrofit Strategic Outline Case
• Generic Strategic Outline Case
• Generic Outline Business Case

Local Partnerships has successfully supported Local Authorities to develop their business cases, if you would like to discuss your project with a member of the team, please contact Vicky Kingston.

Help us, help you deliver robust business cases for local energy projects!

To further support Local Authorities in the development and sign off of business cases for local energy projects, the Energy Systems Catapult and Local Partnerships have developed a short survey to understand more about some of the challenges that you might be experiencing and where more support could help progress the drafting and approvals process. give us insight into their experiences and thoughts on the templates then we can improve and develop these further’ – we can’t do it with out your help.

We would love to hear from you to help us identify what further support you require – fill in the survey.

The report “Mapping a route to clean local growth – clearing the path to net zero” calls on central government to raise the floor of support to help councils deliver a decarbonised local economy and to remove the ceiling on their ambition. There are five action points for local leaders within the report.