Agenda item 4 - Local Authorities Climate Action Co-ordinator Role - Proposal for future priorities and funding

Chief Executives' Group - North Yorkshire and York

11 February 2022

Local Authorities Climate Action Co-ordinator Role - Proposal for future priorities and funding

1 Purpose of the Report

1.1 This paper provides a proposal for funding and future priorities to continue the Local Authorities Climate Action Coordinator post that sits within the York and North Yorkshire LEP.

2 Background

2.1 The Local Authorities Climate Action Coordinator role is currently a 2 year post funded through the YNERYH Directors of Development budget, with its main aim to support York and North Yorkshire local authorities deliver substantial carbon emissions reductions and support climate action. The Directors of Development budget is made up of subscriptions from City of York, ERYC and North Yorkshire (including business rates pool income).

2.2 In February 2020, a paper was taken to the North Yorkshire and York Chief Executives’ Group outlining the need for the climate action post to support collaborative work across the sub-region. This received strong support, with members recognising the need for urgent action.

2.3 An officer was appointed to the post in August 2020, and has worked closely with LAs to develop a number of collaborative projects. The officer has now left the post, which leaves a remaining £24,500 of the original £100k signed-off by DoDs for the role.

2.4 This paper sets out the proposed priorities for the role moving forward, with a business case included in Appendix A.

3 Progress to date

3.1 The role has made a critical contribution to supporting local authorities deliver climate action, including:

Increased collaboration, knowledge sharing and strengthened relationships between YNY Climate Action Leads through regular meetings, weekly newsletters, and knowledge sharing events such as EV Charging, Housing Retrofit and Treeplanting.
Design and delivery of strategic procurement project to provide practical toolkits to ensure procurement is used as a lever to accelerate the transition to net zero.
Co-development of bespoke LAs low carbon training module to increase all LA officers understanding and knowledge around climate change.
Facilitating collaboration between services leads in Asset Management and Communications to encourage joint approaches and reduced duplication.
Translation of Carbon Abatement Pathways Study recommendations to LAs specific role, and facilitating LAs engagement in the development of YNY Routemap to Carbon Negative (including Roundtable Sessions). This has included service specific briefings for Housing, Planning, Tourism, Waste and Economic Development for examples.

4 Proposed priorities moving forward

4.1 Over the last two years, York and North Yorkshire LAs have made substantial progress in developing and delivering their own climate action plans, building officer capacity and developing carbon reduction projects. We have particularly seen progress with LAs tackling their own operational carbon emissions. However, significant challenges remain in relation to LAs influencing emissions reductions across their geographies.

4.2 A business case is provided in Appendix A which includes an options appraisal for addressing this challenge. The preferred option is to recruit for a two year post for the LAs Climate Action Coordinator role.

4.3 Working with the YNY LAs Climate Action Leads group, we have developed the following priorities for extending the role to focus on enabling the transition to net zero:

Strategic coordination and supporting regional work – understanding what scale climate action interventions are required (e.g., national, regional, sub-regional, local) and connecting the dots between activity to avoid duplication of effort and maximise impact. This would include supporting the work of the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission.
Engaging and activating SMEs – working in partnership to develop a package of measures to support SMEs in YNY to decarbonise, including retail businesses and other B2Cs.
Developing supply chains and skills – connecting businesses with higher education and skills providers to build the supply chains for housing retrofit, EV installation/maintenance and renewables.
Driving collaboration – continue to convene YNY LAs to support collaboration and sharing best practice, and enable wider partnership working with anchor institutions.
Supporting LGR and devolution – providing low carbon expertise where required to support devolution deal work and the LGR process, with a particular focus on ensuring the new unitary supports community-led climate action.

These priorities are closely aligned with LEP’s remit around strategic leadership, building partnerships, supporting businesses and developing skills, and as such the proposed post will leverage the expertise and capacity of other LEP teams to deliver these priorities effectively.

4.4 These priorities have been considered by the YNYERH Directors of Development Group and have received strong support. There was consensus at the meeting that it was critical for the role to continue and DoDs are supportive of the post continuing on a permanent basis. However, in light of the uncertainty of future funding and the need to consider how climate change action is resourced in the new North Yorkshire Council, the proposal within this report is to fund the post for a further period of two years. This will allow time for the new council to consider structures and resources for the future.

4.5 The shortfall in funding is £81,500 and DoDs have agreed to fund it using unallocated funding from within the DoDs budget.

5 Recommendations

5.1 To review the business case to extend the LAs Climate Action Coordinator role and agree the preferred option to continue funding the post for a further period of two years using unallocated funding within the DoDs budget.

Katie Thomas
Senior Strategy Manager – Low Carbon & Environment, York and North Yorkshire LEP

11 February 2022

Appendix A – Business Case for LAs Climate Action Coordinator Role

Background

Background to LAs Climate Action Coordinator Role

In January 2020, £100k funding was secured from the business rates pool to recruit a 2 year post to support York and North Yorkshire local authorities deliver substantial carbon emissions reductions and support climate action. This was to address the challenge that local authorities had been seeking support from York and North Yorkshire LEP to develop their climate action plans following climate emergency declarations. Working within a small team, we did not have the capacity to support local authorities to the extent needed.

Working with LA colleagues, we developed the following priorities for the role:

- - Increase collaboration between local authorities – increase knowledge sharing to reduce duplicated effort, identify opportunities for joint-working and lead the development of collaborative projects.
  - Support project development – support the development of climate action projects by enabling access to resources and expertise, strengthening links to the LEP’s wider low carbon and environment team.
  - Identify funding opportunities – identify and support local authorities secure funding and additional resource for climate action projects.
  - Coordinate key strategic elements - ensure a joined-up strategic approach on shared priorities, such as transport, planning and procurement, aligned with the outputs from the York and North Yorkshire carbon abatements pathway study.
  - Develop and share best practice – research and engage with local authorities (both within and outside the region) to identify, develop and share best practice guidance, tools and case studies.
  - Improve carbon literacy and knowledge – develop a training programme (using the £7k secured through the business rates pool) and other resources to build awareness, knowledge and skills for climate action.
  - Monitor progress – ensure consistent reporting across local authorities and track progress across the area.

The post was recruited to and commenced the role in August 2020, working closely with LAs to deliver on the above priorities.

Challenge

The recruited officer left the post 13^th January 2022 for a new role within NYCC, which leaves a remaining £24,500 of the original £100k signed-off by DoDs for the role.

Whilst York and North Yorkshire LAs have made substantial progress over the last two years in developing and delivering their own climate action plans, significant challenges remain in relation to LAs influencing emissions reductions across their geographies – which require a joined-up approach across the sub-region.

Options Appraisal

Option/Description	Benefits & Impact	Risks	Cost
“Do Nothing”: No action is taken.	No direct costs.	Lack of coordination and collaboration between Y&NY Local Authorities. Failure to meet local carbon targets, fulfil climate emergency declarations & Y&NY’s regional carbon negative ambition.	£0 direct cost. However, the costs of inaction tackling climate change are significant.
Consultancy/commission research: Commission a discrete piece of work with the secured £24, 500 from the business rates pool. The work would be agreed and developed with Y&NY Climate Action Leads.	Further research or consultancy support on specific challenges, such as a housing retrofit strategy for the region. This would help address specific challenges we have in the transition to net zero. Specific benefits and impact would be dependent on the chosen scope of work.	Limited capacity within the Y&NY LEP Low Carbon & Environment Team to effectively scope, commission and manage the work. Research/consultancy would be specific and not support the wider need for a joined up approach to net zero across Y&NY LAs.	£24,500 – existing secured business rates pool funding (no additional funding required)
6 month contract: Utilise the secured £24,500 to recruit for a 6 month post to support LAs influence emissions across their geography.	Low additional cost. The postholder would work on a smaller number of priorities than those proposed in the body of this report, with a focus on short-term wins.	Likely to be difficult to recruit to such a short term post Work would be over a short period of time, so it would be restrictive what they would be able to achieve.	Total cost: £26,500 Additional cost beyond secured funding: £2,000
1 year fixed term post: Recruit for a 1 year post to support LAs influence emissions across their geography – delivering the priorities proposed in the body of this report.	The postholder would play a critical role in enabling the transition to net zero, providing: Strategic coordination & supporting regional-level work Engaging and activating SMEs Developing supply chains and skills Driving collaboration Supporting LGR and devolution as required.	May be challenging to recruit a high quality candidate to a relatively short term post. Short timeframe of post will impact how much the role will be able to achieve.	Total cost: £53,000 Additional cost beyond secured funding: £28,500
2 year fixed term post (preferred option): Recruit for a 2 year post to support LAs influence emissions across their geography – delivering the priorities proposed in the body of this report.	The postholder would provide the benefits described above, yielding further impact from the role being for 2 years.	Proposed priorities cover a vast work area and the postholder may not be able to deliver all of them (even within a 2 year period) There is a current high demand for sustainability professionals, so even with a 2 yr contract, we may still struggle to recruit for the post.	Total cost: £106,00 Additional cost beyond secured funding: £81,500

Preferred Option & Rationale

Preferred Option
The preferred option is for a 2 year fixed term post to enable the recruitment of a high quality candidate and allow sufficient time for the postholder to build relationships and develop projects to deliver the proposed priorities:

Strategic coordination & supporting regional work – understanding what scale climate action interventions are required (e.g., national, regional, sub-regional, local) and connecting the dots between activity to avoid duplication of effort and maximise impact.
Engaging and activating SMEs – working in partnership to develop a package of measures to support SMEs in YNY to decarbonise, including retail businesses and other B2Cs.
Developing supply chains and skills – connecting businesses with higher education and skills providers to build the supply chains for housing retrofit, EV installation/maintenance and renewables.
Driving collaboration – continue to convene YNY LAs to support collaboration and sharing best practice, and enable wider partnership working with anchor institutions.
Supporting LGR and devolution – providing low carbon expertise where required to support devolution deal work and the LGR process, with a particular focus on ensuring the new unitary supports community-led climate action.

These priorities are closely aligned with LEP’s role around strategic leadership, building partnerships, supporting businesses and developing skills, and as such the proposed post will leverage the expertise and capacity of other LEP teams to deliver these priorities effectively.

Other Options

The “do nothing” option has been discounted due to the critical priority of decarbonisation across the region.
Although utilising the pre-secured funding for a discrete piece of research or consultancy would be useful, this would not deliver across the required priorities as set out by Y&NY LA Climate Action Lead. Critically, capacity is required to ensure the transition to decarbonisation is coordinated within Y&NY and supports Yorkshire and Humber level work.
The options for a 6 month or 12 month post have been discounted due to the difficulty of being able to secure a high quality candidate for such a short term post, and the reduced ability for the postholder to be able to deliver meaningful projects in a short time window.

Risks And Mitigations

Key risks associated with the preferred option are:

Proposed priorities cover a vast work area and the postholder may not be able to deliver all of them (even within a 2 year period)
There is a current high demand for sustainability professionals, so even with a 2 yr contract, we may still struggle to recruit for the post.

To address these risks:

We will work with Y&NY LA Climate Action Leads and Directors of Development to further develop the priorities and establish a work programme, prioritising activities which will be most impactful.
We will review the current job description of the LAs Climate Action Coordinator to ensure the specifics will meet the requirement for the proposed role. We will work with NYCC to ensure that the job vacancy is advertised effectively and reaches sustainability professionals.