Agenda item

Joint report of the Director of Innovation & Growth, the Director of the Built Environment and the Director of Open Spaces.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Director of Innovation & Growth, the Director of the Built Environment and the Director of Open Spaces regarding Climate Action Briefing Implementation.

The Chair thanked Officers for a very important and well written document.

A Member agreed that the document was massively welcome and urged Officers to try and move even quicker on this matter if possible. She went on to speak of whole life carbon impacts noting that the document failed to address this point. She highlighted that the Bloomberg building had recently been criticised on this point and that she would therefore welcome seeing it specifically mentioned. The Director of the Built Environment accepted that this should be part of the scope here.

Another Member raised the issue of office lights and keeping these to a minimum at night which would be a ‘quick win’ in terms of dealing, to some extent, with carbon emissions. He reported that he had visited offices within his own Ward and examined their Building Management Plans. Lights were operated on a Passive Infrared sensor system (PIR) with some on 100 sq. m. per switch and set to illuminate for 1 hour at a time. There were currently no regulations on this but the Member felt that this was something that could be developed and the issue addressed by way of programming.

A Member stated that, whilst he was supportive of this document, he wanted to caution against ‘virtue signalling’ and claiming success for the contributions of the City’s Open Spaces. He also questioned the statement within the report that the 2018 freeze had been caused by man made global warming and asked if this was scientific fact and had any source. A second Member stated that it was important to have a clear understanding of the value the City’s Open Spaces added.

Another Member stated that he felt that Officers were adopting the correct approach to this matter in terms of robust data gathering which would hopefully lead to effective action. This, he felt, detracted from any politics and virtue signalling. He emphasised that this seemed to be very much the beginning of the process and not a conclusion. A second Member echoed this point and urged Officers not to shy away from collating the relevant data which was about the best way to effect change and purely factual as opposed to political. The Director of the Built Environment stated that Officers were very aware of the politics around this and had consciously decided against declaring a climate emergency in the way that some other local authorities had. It was felt that the development of this strategy would put the City Corporation in a strong position to tackle the issue going forward.

A Member added that Officers should work to ensure that relevant issues here were translated in to actions within the emerging Local Plan.

In response to questions regarding funding, the Director of the Built Environment reported that some posts had been held vacant in preparation for the Fundamental Review and so the budget to progress this work across the three relevant Departments was available without having to detract from work elsewhere. She agreed with the point already made around this being very much a preliminary report and stated that she was happy to take all of the points raised by Members on-board in developing this.

A Member referred to the action within the report stating that the City Corporation would “influence Scope 1 and 2 emissions from the Square Mile by ensuring all new buildings are zero carbon through our planning policy……..”. She questioned whether this was therefore to be a formal planning condition on all applications granted going forward. A second Member questioned the definition of a zero carbon building. The Chair suggested that it would be useful to have the response to these questions circulated to Members.

Another Member noted that funds to progress this matter were required over the next 8 months and questioned whether there were sufficient funds to carry forward to the next financial year to complete the proposed survey work. He also suggested that the aim of producing a final Strategy by June 2020 might be overly ambitious given that the collation of data was also set to conclude at this time and asked for a more realistic estimate.

The Director of the Built Environment stated that the issue of funding had been flagged to the Finance Committee and that whilst a carry forward was technically possible no additional funding was identified at this stage and neither had the resources been identified to produce the plan to date. For these reasons, it was not yet possible to provide Members with a definite timescale around the strategy.

A Member stated that it was clear that the intended direction of travel from this Committee was at least the semi-pedestrianisation of the City and stated that he was disappointed to not see this referenced. The Director of the Built Environment confirmed that she was well aware of the Committee’s wishes here and re-emphasised that this was not the final strategy.

Another Member noted that there was no reference to the Emissions Reduction Bill and questioned the level of dependency that would be placed on this given the City Corporation’s lack of control around it and lack of statutory powers around things such as Controlled Heat and Power (CHP) plants. A second Member suggested that the emerging Local Plan should be carefully scrutinised to ensure that it went as far as possible on such issues.

The Director of the Built Environment clarified that the Local Plan was an emerging document but already included policies on carbon neutral buildings. She also clarified that there was no strict dependency on the Emissions Reduction Bill.

A Member stated that Officers would also need to be cognisant of and monitor the impact action here had on the City’s competitiveness and cost to build implications. He appreciated that, whilst this should not be at the forefront of considerations here, it needed to be part of the process with some measure of any impact.

The Director of the Built Environment stated that, whilst she very much welcomed the debate, this remained a preliminary report and that it would be for Members to decide on the final details of the strategy. She added that the competitiveness of the City would remain at the heart of her Department’s work.

A Member spoke to highlight that there was some controversy surrounding genuine carbon sequestration and the science around it.

Another Member questioned the timing around this urgent issue and expressed reservations at awaiting a final strategy before taking appropriate actions to address it. He requested that Members be offered a future briefing on the City Corporation’s current policy around this alongside steps being taken in the emerging Local Plan to address the matter as he, amongst others, seemed to be unaware that new buildings were now required to be carbon neutral. The Member asked that this be added to the Committee’s list of outstanding actions until such time as the information was received and asked that Officers also look to report on what the organisation could be doing/was sustainable to be doing now.

The Chair agreed that it was vital for the City Corporation to be robust on this matter with some local authorities already having declared a climate emergency. He clarified that the work on the Local Plan had currently been stalled as the London Plan was still awaited. However, some dates for the Local Plans Sub Committee to reconvene were already in the process of being set for January and February 2020.

A Member questioned whether it would be possible to provide a breakdown of data by Wards and whether Members could work alongside Officers to help could be enlisted to help fill in any gaps identified in their respective Wards. The Director of the Built Environment undertook to take this point back and query how far it was possible to break down data by Ward. She thanked the Member for the offer of assistance which she would be keen to take up where possible.

A Member asked that a report updating this Committee on data collection and the identification of adequate resources to develop the subsequent strategy be brought back to this Committee in the next three months to ensure that there was adequate pace on this matter.

RESOLVED – That, Members of the Planning and Transportation Committee:

·         Note the robust approach taken and current position of developing a Climate Action Strategy for both the Square Mile and the City of London Corporation;

·         Approve the reprioritisation of 2019-20 Built Environment (£100,000) departmental budgets to cover the costs of the consultancy support required to deliver the Climate Action Briefing.