Local government is finally in the spotlight in parliament; but regardless, councils may still feel ill at ease. With the Planning & Infrastructure Bill in its committee stage and the English Devolution Bill on the way, the Government is attempting the biggest overhaul of English councils since 1972. Unfortunately, both measures come nowhere near the action needed to tackle the twin climate and nature emergency.
On climate, the Government is taking positive action on renewable energy, but missing a huge range of other steps needed to decarbonise our economy. On nature, it is flogging the false narrative of nature as a blocker to development and pushing planning reforms that would weaken fundamental environmental protections.
Already, there is a risk the Government may fail to meet its legal obligations for carbon emissions reduction and nature recovery. These new reforms risk worsening environmental delivery at a local authority level. This would exacerbate the current failings, where weak and vague environmental duties for councils are often pushed aside by “harder” rules relating to development.
To ensure that planning reforms make a positive environmental contribution, the Government should introduce a statutory climate and nature duty for local authorities. The duty should be linked to specific targets under the Climate Change Act 2008 and the Environment Act 2021 to give more clarity to councils. This would enable transparent benchmarks to track progress, improving reporting on climate and nature action.
This lack of strong duties is surprising considering the last Labour government clearly thought councils were key to climate success. The rationale underpinning three climate indicators introduced in 2008 was that “action by local authorities is likely to be critical to the achievement of Government’s climate change objectives”. What has changed in the past 17 years? Are councils not crucial partners in 2025? Are the climate and ecological crises any less real almost two decades on?
The Climate Change Committee has recognised that councils are critical. It noted that “local authorities have powers or influence over roughly a third of emissions in their local areas.” The CCC criticised the broken link between national ambition and council action, saying environmental action is “hindered by a lack of clarity on who should be doing what, limited resources, competing priorities, and a fragmented, short-term funding landscape.” A 2024 Local Government Association survey backed this up as, “67 per cent of councils were very or fairly unconfident” they would achieve their net zero target.
A statutory duty would empower English councils to get the country back on track to meet climate targets and halt wildlife losses. The benefit of a clear statutory duty is obvious. The leading UK authority on climate action has been the Greater London Authority, which has had a duty to act on climate since day one. The GLA can certainly go further and faster, but it is no surprise that climate action has remained a core component of its work, even when mayoral and national governments priorities wavered.
The government has begun to recognise the need to divvy up national targets to delivery partners too. The Health and Care Act 2022 placed new duties on the NHS to consider statutory emissions and environmental targets. Updated statutory duties for the Crown Estate and Ofwat to consider nature and climate targets have recently been introduced. While councils do have general nature duties, these are too weak and vague to drive change. 48 per cent of local authorities have no relevant biodiversity policies or objectives in place, and only a quarter of authorities met their legal duty to consider what action they should take.
This is backed up by recent research from The Woodland Trust and Climate Emergency UK that only 27 per cent of local authorities have declared a nature emergency, compared to the almost 90 per cent that have declared climate emergencies.
Whilst the climate emergency has been more widely recognised with ambitious net zero targets, the CCC notes that “delivery… is currently inconsistent.” This is demonstrated in the Council Climate Action Scorecards. Councils scored 32 per cent on average, with 52 councils scoring 20 per cent or lower. Of the 52 councils that score 20 per cent or below, 49 are English and Northern Irish councils, nations that have no statutory duty for councils to act on climate.
With specific climate and nature responsibilities codified in law, councils would be more likely to prioritise environmental action in planning and allocate necessary resources. It would make addressing the climate and nature crises a legal requirement rather than simply a voluntary commitment. Of course, the Government would be setting councils up to fail if duties were not followed up with the appropriate guidance, resources and crucially, funding for local authorities.
Councils have begun calling for a climate statutory duty themselves. The Local Government Association’s Local Infrastructure & Net Zero Board voted to endorse the principle of a climate statutory duty, joining the District Council Network, London Councils, and ADEPT who have called for a statutory duty on climate change since 2022.
The Government should use this renewed planning overhaul to make councils’ climate and nature responsibilities clearer and stronger. Done well, councils will become the vehicle for the rapid action we need to reduce emissions and restore nature in England.
This article was originally published as an edition of the Green Transition, New Statesman Spotlight’s weekly newsletter on the economics of net zero. See more editions and subscribe here.
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