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Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 18, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“The Notice of Motion referred to Cabinet seeks to commit the Council to achieve net-zero for its own operations by 2030 (or earlier) and to Agenda Item No.Report Title – Notice of Motion – Climate Change Emergency Page 2 of 5 Report No: work with all other relevant agencies towards making the Borough net-zero by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Green City Action Plan

Pre-Plan · PDF · ·

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Climate Plan Scorecard

This council’s climate plans as of 20th September 2021 were assessed and scored by trained Climate Emergency UK volunteers, as part of the Council Climate Plan Scorecards project.

Show the full Scorecard Read more about the scoring process

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in the Commitment and integration section.

SectionSouthend-on-Sea Borough CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score56%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
12/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
12/18
9.0/18
Section 3 · Top performer Commitment and integration
7/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
3/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
1/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

513.7 ktCO2

Total 2019 emissions

2.8 tCO2

per person

7.6 ktCO2

per km2

11%

Commercial

50%

Domestic

6%

Industry

5%

Public Sector

27%

Transport

Data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy “subset dataset”, representing carbon dioxide emissions within the scope of influence of local authorities.

These councils are the most similar to Southend-on-Sea Borough Council in terms of emissions profile, deprivation, rural/urban population density, and geographical nearness. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Croydon86%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Castle Point Borough Council85%NoNo targetNo
Brighton and Hove City Council85%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Basildon Borough Council84%Yes2030No
Ipswich Borough Council84%Yes2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Enfield84%No2030July 8, 2019
London Borough of Havering84%YesNo targetNo
Eastbourne Borough Council83%Yes2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Merton83%No2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Bexley83%NoNo targetNo

These councils are the most similar to Southend-on-Sea Borough Council in terms of their emissions profile, based on the latest data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
London Borough of Merton92%No2030July 10, 2019
London Borough of Sutton89%No2045July 22, 2019
London Borough of Croydon89%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
London Borough of Barnet87%NoNo targetNo
Cheltenham Borough Council87%Yes2030Feb. 18, 2019
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council86%No2030Dec. 4, 2019
South Tyneside Council86%No2030July 18, 2019
Woking Borough Council85%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council85%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Worcester City Council85%No2030July 16, 2019

These councils grographically border or overlap with Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Rochford District Council99%Yes2030No
Castle Point Borough Council98%NoNo targetNo
Essex County Council96%No2030No

These councils are the most similar to Southend-on-Sea Borough Council in terms of the proportion of their population living in high deprivation, medium deprivation, and low deprivation neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea94%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council93%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council93%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Clackmannanshire Council92%NoNo targetNo
Redditch Borough Council91%No2050Sept. 23, 2019
Renfrewshire Council91%No2030June 27, 2019
Lancashire County Council91%No2030Feb. 28, 2019
Swansea City Council91%No2030June 27, 2019
Wyre Forest District Council91%YesNo targetMay 22, 2019
Gravesham Borough Council90%No2030June 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Southend-on-Sea Borough Council in terms of the proportion of their population living in urban, rural, and highly rural neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Birmingham City Council100%No2030June 11, 2019
Liverpool City Council100%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Bristol City Council100%Yes2025Nov. 13, 2018
Nottingham City Council100%Yes2028Jan. 21, 2019
London Borough of Croydon100%YesNo targetJuly 15, 2019
Slough Borough Council100%YesNo targetNo
London Borough of Barnet100%NoNo targetNo
Watford Borough Council100%No2030July 9, 2019
London Borough of Bexley100%NoNo targetNo
London Borough of Sutton100%No2045July 22, 2019

Features

This council’s climate plan has been tagged with the following features:

Integrated with Local Plan Strong on public health

Powers & Responsibilities

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council is a Unitary Authority, with powers over:

Council buildings and staff

Climate actions might include:

  • making council offices more energy efficient
  • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
  • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    Environmental health

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing industrial emissions through air quality enforcement
    • bringing up insulation and energy efficiency standards through enforcement of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and Decent Homes Standard 2000, for cold and damp conditions in private rental and social housing

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Passenger transport

    Climate actions might include:

    • encouraging bus and private hire operators to use low-emission vehicles, through licensing requirements or Clean Air Zones
    • incentivising bus use by improving routes, timetables, and ticket prices through ‘Enhanced Partnerships’ with operators
    • proposing to central government the development of light rail / tram networks that integrate, rather than compete, with other modes of transport in the area

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Planning and building control

    Climate actions might include:

    • imposing reasonable requirements that new developments comply with energy efficiency standards and get a proportion of their energy from local, renewable sources (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • incorporating additional energy performance standards into their Local Plan, for new works that require planning permission
    • using Area Action Plans to guide development proposals towards lower carbon emissions or more cycling and walking routes, for example
    • enforcing legislation that requires private rental properties to be of Energy Efficiency Rating E or above (Energy Efficiency Regulations, 2015)
    • funding energy efficiency improvements on existing homes, through initiatives such as Green Homes Grants

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Schools and libraries

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing the carbon footprint of civic buildings through better insulation and renewable energy use
    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
    • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    • encouraging eco-clubs at schools
    • using school land to plant trees and hedgerows, or to grow food

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Housing

    Climate actions might include:

    • setting energy standards above building regulations (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • enabling housing associations to improve the energy efficiency of their housing stock through loans
    • where councils operate their own social housing, prioritising energy efficiency – for example, by requiring Passivhaus standard for newly built schemes

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Spending, procuring, and investing

    Climate actions might include:

    • embedding carbon impact assessment as part of the council’s budgeting and financial accountability process
    • utilising Public Works Loan Board loans or the Business Rates Retention Scheme to invest in emissions-reducing capital projects that otherwise wouldn’t get funded
    • specifying low carbon equipment and practices when procuring for relevant services from suppliers
    • prioritising positive environmental impacts during procurement, through the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
    Transport planning

    Climate actions might include:

    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ like walking and cycling by creating or widening footways and cycleways
    • incentivising Electric Vehicle use by assigning street space to EV charging
    • disincentivising the use of fossil fuel cars through congestion charging,low-traffic neighbourhoods, or the reduction of parking space

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Waste collection and disposal

    Climate actions might include:

    • establishing ‘Joint Waste Solutions’ with neighbouring councils, to get more value out of waste, recycling, and street cleaning contracts
    • running marketing campaigns to encourage residential recycling, reuse, and waste minimisation

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Read more about English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

    southend.gov.uk
    Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.
    Friends of the Earth ‘Near You’ tool
    Discover climate groups in this area, data about Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2022). Climate Action Plan Explorer: Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. Available at: http://data.climateemergency.uk/councils/southend-on-sea-borough-council/ [Accessed 27 Jun 2022].

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