Agenda item

The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, but you can also access them on the Somerset West and Taunton webcasting website.

Mr Robert Barnes addressed the Council on issues that related to street cleanliness, fly tipping and other concerns on local democracy.

Sigurd Reimers submitted the following statement:-

Last year this Council was rated by Climate Emergency UK (CEUK) as having the highest overall score of all local authorities on its plans for dealing with the climate emergency.

This year local Councils would be rated on how well they were progressing with implementing those plans, and CEUK would have issued their draft methodology for assessing progress on 29^th November.

This Council’s overall score was very impressive last year. However, in one of the nine dimensions examined by CEUK - diversity and social exclusion – the score was only just over 50%. This was concerning, given that the Council area was listed in 57^th place out of 151 Council areas on Indicators of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) for barriers to housing and local services by its citizens.

This Council’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2019 stressed the importance of Councils providing or promoting measures for mitigation of, and adaptation to, the effects of climate change.

I should like to know how far Somerset West and Taunton Council had put its plans into operation, and particularly within the diversity and social exclusion dimension, given that our most vulnerable citizens would be those who would be (or already were) bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change.

The Portfolio Holder for Climate Change gave the following response:-

Sigurd was right to point to Indicators of Multiple Deprivation in his question about how we were addressing the issue of Equalities within our Climate emergency strategy. Those issues provided significant social challenges to Somerset as a whole, and not just in how the county supported citizens in the fact of climate change.

For example, according to the 2011 census, 23% of dwellings in Somerset had an EPC rating below 'E', well above the national average of 9%. In West Somerset, the proportion was above 30%.

Those in Somerset who did have central heating were less likely than the average home in England to have gas heating, with a greater dependency on oil. In West Somerset, only 45% of homes had gas central heating, while 22% had oil heating (2011 census), more than five times the national average.

In 2010, the population of Somerset aged 65 was 21%. ONS projections suggested that by 2040 one third of the population in Somerset would be 65 or over.

The average salary within Somerset was 18% less than the UK average, which obviously made retrofitting property and adapting to rising costs difficult.

Meeting the targets of carbon neutrality and climate resilience would require major societal shifts and changes to be made from all sectors of society. However, protecting the most vulnerable from unreasonable burdens and impacts was important to achieving a just transition to a low carbon economy. This CNCR plan recognised the need for a just transition and that influenced a number of actions in the final action plan including: 84 (Workforce development strategy), 87 (West Somerset Opportunity Area), 162 (affordable flood insurance), 186 (Fuel Poverty), 273 (Access to healthy and climate friendly food) etc.

The Plan outlined who climate change would harm the most. There was an Equalities Impact Assessment for the CNCR plan, which specifically referenced the vulnerability to climate change of those on low incomes and rural isolation.

On the ground, the Council had begun to tackle some of the issues raised in the question.

A Low Carbon Retrofit Strategy and Delivery Plan for the Council’s 5700 social houses was approved at Executive last week. The strategy and delivery approach would support customers experiencing or at risk of experiencing fuel poverty in the medium and long term by a fabric first approach aimed at reducing heat demand (fuel usage) by c60%-70%.

With regards to private sector rental accommodation, the Council carried out a stock modelling exercise last year to provide intelligence on the private sector housing stock across our district. The modelling identified the presence of 1,262 dwellings at risk of excess cold, with an estimated 1,693 properties, (equating to 10% in the private rented stock) falling into F & G EPC ratings. We were using the modelling data to prioritise our inspection programme to support the most vulnerable tenants.

We had secured funding from EDF to support the work and were investigating how we could use the modelling data to offer grants to landlords to improve energy efficiency. This was in line with our countywide Climate Emergency Strategy commitment to ensure all Private landlords’ properties to be at least EPC C standard by 2030.

Working with partners, the Council had also delivered grant funded retrofit measures across the district via Local authority Delivery Scheme (LADS) and Home Upgrade Grant Scheme (HUGS), using funding from BEIS.

Given the rural nature of large parts of the district, residents were very reliant on the car. Rural isolation was an issue already, and that would only be exacerbated by climate change. Fuel prices would already be impacting how much people would be driving, and there would be a difficult period of transition whilst society waited for the infrastructure to develop and the price of EVs to reduce to an affordable level. But both those things would come, and SWT continued to support the rollout of EVs, installing EVCPs in Dulverton and Porlock, and was working with SCC ahead of the new unitary organisation to explore options to provide better EVCP provision in rural areas via the government LEVI fund.

Clearly public transport and good active travel links needed to be better to support this also. The County Council had been successful in achieving funding from Government for its Bus Service Improvement Plan. That had led to bus fares into Taunton being fixed at a £1 for the next two years. Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans were now in place for Taunton, with one in progress for Wellington, and a commitment from the Council to provide the match funding for a LCWIP for Minehead, subject to local agreement.

Our open spaces were never more important than during the pandemic for people to exercise, socialise and take time outside, and that had remained. SWT continued to invest in its green spaces, securing  7 Green Flag Awards this year. The Green Flag Awards included specific criteria on community involvement, equal access for all and climate adaptation. Our open spaces also played a key part in commitments within the Council’s Ecological Emergency Vision and Action Plan to ensure good quality access to nature for all.

The question was of course huge and wide, and climate change was only part of what needed to be an integrated approach to dealing with the issues of deprivation and social isolation. But within those challenges there were opportunities to deliver genuine co-benefits for the most vulnerable members of society, such as reducing heating bills and improving health via warmer homes, better active travel and taking advantage of a new green economy.

However, those changes required significant resource input from central government. Councils could only do so much, and we would continue to lobby as Somerset West and Taunton, and as the new unitary authority from next year. Finally, we were fully aware that social inequality, both nationally and globally, was a key factor in addressing climate change.