Majority of council officers back statutory net zero duty, LGL and Ashfords research finds

The report, Towards Net Zero: Are councils winning the fight against climate change?, is based on a survey of 226 council lawyers and other relevant officers, together with interviews with eight senior councillors, officers, advisers and campaigners. Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said there should be a statutory requirement on local authorities to move towards net zero.

Asked what would most help their authority meet its net zero aims, 40% of respondents named more funding as the single most important factor. A further 26% chose the introduction of legal obligations on councils to meet targets. Better in-house skills for managing net zero projects and a higher profile for net zero in national and local politics also ranked highly.

Jonathan Croley, partner at Ashfords, said: "Our report shows there is clear support for a statutory net zero duty, but some areas are slowing progress. Most councils know what they want to achieve. The hard part is turning ambition into something practical and deliverable. They need the right funding, the right delivery model and the right structures in place to achieve this."

Interviewees cautioned that a duty imposed without resources would simply add to the pressures already facing authorities. Barry Wyatt, Climate Emergency Manager at South Gloucestershire Council, speaking on behalf of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT), said: "If you just have the legal duties without any funding, then it just increases stress and pressure within the system as councils struggle to hit another legal target."

Isaac Beevor, Partnerships Director at Climate Emergency UK, took a different view, arguing that a statutory duty would strengthen the position of officers when climate objectives compete with other priorities. "When they're at the table saying this is something we have to do, that's not a choice anymore," he said. "It becomes something that the council has to do."

The research found that climate considerations are now embedded in many areas of council decision-making, although only 16% of respondents said they play a crucial role in decision-making in general. Electric vehicle charging infrastructure is the most common decarbonisation programme, reported by 67% of respondents, followed by electrifying council fleets (63%) and energy efficiency measures across the council estate (57%). With many of the quicker and cheaper interventions already delivered, authorities are increasingly left with harder and more expensive work such as building retrofit.

The report also records a widening political divide over local climate action. Some councils have cancelled fleet and retrofit programmes, dropped net zero targets or ended their climate emergency declarations following changes of political control. Others that remain committed, including the Greater London Authority and Islington Council, have said their 2030 targets cannot be met without additional funding or powers.

Croley said the legal and procurement architecture around net zero projects could offer councils a degree of protection against changes in political direction. "Political winds may change, but councils that understand their funding options, procurement routes and delivery risks will be better placed to keep making progress," he said. "If low-carbon requirements are embedded into service delivery, those requirements will endure for the contract term even if the council changes its policy to move away from net zero targets."

The full report, Towards Net Zero: Are councils winning the fight against climate change?, is available here.