RBWM to appeal to Government not to backtrack on climate targets

Windsor and Maidenhead council will call on central Government not to backtrack on its climate commitments – as this will make it harder for the Borough to reach its own goals.

The Borough is standing by its pledge to become carbon neutral by 2050, in line with national aims.

But last week, the Prime Minister announced significant delays to phasing out of diesel and petrol cars, as well as gas boilers.

He also scrapped commitments for homeowners and landlords to upgrade insulation on their properties – which help save energy and thus energy costs.

At Tuesday’s full council meeting, Cllr Karen Davies, cabinet member for climate change, filed a late motion calling for the council leader to write to central Government to urge it to reconsider.

It will outline the council’s concerns about how it – and other local authorities – will be impacted in their own attempts to reach net zero carbon.

The Borough wants to achieve net zero by 2050 ‘at the latest’ and is ‘on course’ to get to a 50 per cent reduction in carbon by 2025.

But this UK Government decision ‘will have a considerable impact on the borough.’

“Any watering down of the commitment from Government makes it harder for us to achieve this,” said Cllr Davies.

In 2020, gas and other heating contributed to 29 per cent of the borough’s carbon emissions, while vehicles contributed 33 per cent, she said.

The council wants to reduce this as much as possible as soon as possible to stop further global warming. Any delay means targets could reveal themselves to be out of reach, too late.

“If there is an 80 per cent phase out of oil and gas boilers by 2035, there's going to be a lot still operating in 2050,” said Cllr Davies.

As such, the Borough is asking for renewed urgent commitment to fund improvements to electric infrastructure.

“Delaying phased climate pledges while maintaining a national 2050 net zero target is kicking the can down the road for someone else to pick up,” Cllr Davies said.

“This U-turn on climate pledges is abandoning the cross-party consensus that I believe have benefitted this vital work over the last few years,” said Cllr Davies.

“We have everyone from the National Trust to Boris Johnson to Ford Motor Company saying this is a bad idea.

“This is such an important issue, we have a duty to do something about it,” Cllr Davies added.

As a result of the scrapping of the insulation commitment, private renters across the nation are expected to pay 1billion pounds more in energy bills, for the sake of ‘saving landlords some money up front’.

Councillors agreed that local authorities need support and funding from central government to help its residents, particularly in terms of affording sometimes costly changes.

For example, electric vehicles remain for many, simply unaffordable.

With this in mind, fellow councillors added their concerns over these matters, including the need for funding to address a ‘skills gap’ in those with the technical ability to install heat pumps, a more environmentally friendly alternative to gas boilers.

Many councillors chimed in with their feeling that this ‘stop and start’ approach by Government threatened to stymie the tide of change and would also be ‘harmful’ for businesses trying to make plans. Councillors voted overwhelmingly in favour of raising concerns to the Government.