Fight to keep net zero targets lost
A bid to get West Northants Council to make a U-turn on its decision to scrap net zero targets has fallen.
By Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
A bid to get West Northants Council to make a U-turn on its decision to scrap net zero targets has fallen.
After three hours of debate at a special scrutiny meeting in Towcester last night, the committee decided the authority should continue with its plans to ‘refocus’ the sustainability commitments which had previously pledged to offset carbon emissions by the end of the decade.
The Reform UK led authority had angered many last month when it announced its intention to scrap the net zero commitment plans made by the predecessor authority. But the call in by a group of eight councillors has proved fruitless.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Rosie Humphreys, who led the call-in, accused the Reform UK cabinet of making an unconstitutional decision, claiming that they did not take into account all relevant considerations and make the decision in the best interests of the communities of West Northamptonshire.
She explained that councils are required to take a leadership role in reducing emissions and criticised a lack of evidence in the original Cabinet meeting as to why continuing with local net zero targets would be unaffordable.
However, finance portfolio holder Cllr John Slope told her that “this administration works miracles but [net zero] is going to take a bit longer” than the 2030 deadline.
He said:
“Here’s the plain truth; there never has been a dedicated net zero budget for 2030. That’s the crux of the problem- ambition without resources.
“I respect those who want 2030 reinstated. The urgency of climate change is real and so is their passion, but ambition has to be matched with deliverability.
“This decision is lawful, it is in line with policy and above all it is focused on the best use of taxpayers’ money to deliver measurable environmental improvements for West Northamptonshire.”
Speaking at the meeting, 17-year-old Philippa Knowles told members: “You propose to take the word climate out of all of your documents, while it’s one of the greatest problems affecting my age and younger. Have you consulted people like me?
“This overall lack of engagement is worrying for an elected council that is overall meant to make decisions on the behalf of all of West Northants.”
Officers told the panel that there was a ‘significant gap’ in the trajectory for carbon emissions from where we are today to the net zero commitment for 2030. Current forecasts show that there would still be approximately 17,000 tonnes of carbon WNC would need to offset in the first year alone.
They added that the only solution would likely be significant carbon offsetting, which is a process where an organisation can invest in other projects that remove or reduce greenhouse gases to balance their own output, and it is not known how much that could cost.
However, Conservative member of the panel Fiona Cole asked why everything was being seen in “absolutes”.
“This is maintain or scrap,” she said, “Why is there not an option to look at a middle ground of a review and amend?
“You can’t say something is not affordable when you haven’t even looked at it as an option. I agree, I don’t actually think that 2030 and 2045 is achievable, but that doesn’t mean that you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Leader of the Labour group, Cllr Sally Keeble, added:
“I understand that Reform wanted to be one of the first councils to scrap net zero. I would much rather see this council being the first council to achieve its target.
“In Northampton, we see the results of flooding, climate change, that’s where it meets. We absolutely know that this is not something we can sit and twiddle our thumbs about.”
However, Reform UK vice-chair of the committee, Cllr Kamala Guliyeva gave a more sceptical view, stating that net zero is based on the premise that climate change is manmade, which she said was “not fact” and compared to believing in a religion. She did however claim that there is “absolutely evidence that this net zero is bankrupting this country”.
A motion was put forward to refer the decision back to cabinet and recommend they look to create an evidence-based strategy, looking more in depth at finance and specific milestones, to achieve net zero.
Four members of the panel, made up of cross-party support, voted for the motion, while the remaining five Reform UK councillors voted against.
This means WNC now holds a position where it recognises it cannot control global climate change and no longer has an duty to reach net zero emissions by 2030 and for residents and businesses by 2045. Reference to the ‘climate impact’ of future council projects will also be removed, replacing it with a section on the ‘environmental impact’.
It will continue wider sustainability work and has also pointed to a goal of achieving better results for local communities and nature by focusing on tangible matters within its control.
The Government’s target remains for the wider area to be Net Zero by 2050.
By Sarah Ward
While we’ve been away
You may have noticed a lack of posts this month, due to holiday, but of course the news has rolled on as always. Here are some updates to stories that we had been reporting on before the break:
The chief executive of West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) Anna Earnshaw has announced her departure. Just two months after the authority came under the control of Reform UK, Earnshaw, who has worked in the county for several years, announced she is moving on. She had appeared to push back on the Doge initiative, saying that any information gathered by the people sent in would have to go to her office and could not be used for political purposes.
Her departure follows that of deputy chief executive Rebecca Purnell, who had been on the board of the council’s arms length housing company Northamptonshire Partnership Homes.
The Reform UK leaders of North and West Northamptonshire Council have joined other council leaders from their party in writing to the Labour government to call for consultation on asylum accommodation claiming that residents feel ‘blindsided’ by the accommodation being used.
Also today, following the high court ruling on the closure of the Epping Hotel, WNC leader Mark Arnull has said the council is now ‘actively considering’ the options open to the authority. There are three hotels in the county which have been used to house people waiting to have their asylum claims processed.
A Northampton homeless charity that has been in dispute with West Northamptonshire Council has closed down and gone into liquidation.
The Northampton Association for Accommodation for Single Homeless had its funding stopped by WNC earlier this summer, over a dispute about housing benefit payments which made up the majority of its income. Several staff will now become redundant and people who use the service could be made homeless again.
Read more here and an earlier story from us.
Scrapping the interim net zero targets is an outrageous dereliction of duty by the WNC leadership. While 33% of the electorate voted Reform the other 67% voted for parties committed to net zero. Reform have a duty to govern for all of their residents, not just those who voted for them. Between 2019 and 2024, Reform received more than 90% of its funding, £2.3 million, from individuals and companies linked to fossil fuels, polluting industries and climate science denial. It's clear who they are working for, and it isn't the residents of West Northamptonshire.
Excellent news, well done to REFORM controlled West Northants for pressing on with scrapping the NUT zero targets and a double celebration on the news Anna Earnshaw is leaving