Low carbon supply chains
The LGA agrees with the consultation that the industry will need to develop the necessary skills and supply chains. However, the step change required to meet the scale needed to decarbonise all buildings by 2050 is significant. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) state that cost reductions for key low-carbon technologies are driven by scale manufacturing and that Government will need a policy framework to support UK manufacturing in a way that does not drive manufacturing overseas and benefits UK jobs and investment (page 125).
They also advise that low-carbon markets and supply chains particularly for insulation, heat pumps and heat networks must scale up if the building sector is to be fully decarbonised by 2050 (page 109). Their net zero pathway requires all new buildings to be zero carbon by 2025 at the latest and 100% of heating system sales be low carbon by 2030 for public buildings (page 112).
The UK Green Building Council suggest that aligning non-domestic and domestic approaches can help to deliver sufficient scale to attract the level of investment required to develop low carbon markets. The government should ensure that grid requirements are adequately met to meet increasing demand.
Councils can play an important role in maturing supply chains as significant building owners and place-shapers. According to statistics published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on local authority finance and capital assets, capital expenditure on acquisition and existing buildings by local authorities in 2019-20 was £4.4 billion, and £13.7 billion on new construction, conversion and renovation in the same period. Councils are also significant consumers of electricity. The most recent Building Energy Efficiency Survey, which reports on non-domestic building stock in England and Wales, shows that owner occupied premises account for over half of total energy consumption with 80 per cent of this consumed by the public sector.
Schools, leisure centres and community buildings account for a large proportion of energy use for councils across non-domestic buildings. These buildings as well as councils’ own housing stock provide opportunities to develop innovative energy efficiency programmes and generate significant cost savings for councils. By investing in councils to meet their own energy efficiency and carbon ambitions, they can send a strong signal to businesses, residents and investors to help promote wider take up and investment in renewable energy sources and low carbon technologies, as well as providing a valuable income stream to support local services. As early adopters, local authorities can provide a pipeline of projects to stimulate growth in the low carbon energy sector and support adoption of low carbon technologies.
In non-domestic buildings, Stoke on Trent Council installed a 90kW closed loop ground source heat pump system in the Stoke Local Service Centre, providing heat to a 1,314m2 new build extension with underfloor heating. Rochdale Council retrofitted an existing leisure complex, Heywood Sports Village, by installing roof mounted solar PV panels. Councils are also demonstrating leadership in the construction of new low carbon non-domestic buildings. Sutton Council built the first Passivhaus secondary school in the UK which opened for pupils in 2019 and generates more energy than it uses. The council also built the BedZed eco-village in 2002.
In domestic buildings, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) received funding from the LGA’s Housing Advisers Programme to develop a method to model the need and opportunity to retrofit existing homes, supporting their ambition to become carbon neutral by 2038.
Low carbon skills and jobs
Implementing the Future Buildings Standard will require the right skills at the right time to transition all UK buildings to net zero. This is a priority for local authorities, as building owners, enforcement bodies and as leaders of local place and economies.
The demand for low carbon jobs will require a diverse range of skills and expertise to roll-out low carbon technologies. However, to date, the ability to meet the skills needs of businesses has not been successful. Pre-COVID-19, four-fifths of UK manufacturers struggled to hire the staff with the right qualifications and experience, according to the British Chamber of Commerce. LGA research also revealed real concerns about immediate (2020 – 2025) skill gaps in nuclear construction, design and planning supply chain, design and installation of heat pumps, and within the financial services.
Local government is ideally placed to understand how employer demand is changing and how the local skills profile of an area needs to adapt. This is difficult to do within the confines of what is still a highly centralised and fragmented employment and skills system. Whilst national and local government’s net zero targets will drive demand for low-carbon goods and services over the coming years, it is crucial that there is a workforce in place to deliver the change needed by 2050. These challenges have already been highlighted in the Environmental Audit Committee’s survey about the Green Homes Grant scheme.
The LGA’s published analysis on local green jobs – accelerating a sustainable economic recovery found that nearly 700,000 jobs could be created in England’s low-carbon and renewable energy economy by 2030, rising to more than 1.8 million by 2050. Nearly half will be in clean electricity generation and providing low-carbon heat for homes and businesses (manufacturing wind turbines, installing solar panels and installing heat pumps). Around a fifth (21 per cent) of jobs will be involved in installing energy efficiency products, such as insulation, lighting and control systems. According to the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG) investment in energy efficiency alone could create 34,000 full-time jobs within the next two years. Around 40 per cent of jobs will be involved in installing energy efficiency products; providing low-carbon services, including financial, legal and IT; and producing alternative fuels, such as bioenergy and hydrogen. The remainder will be directly involved in manufacturing low-emission vehicles and the associated infrastructure.
Importantly, these jobs are projected to be generated across England’s local authorities and regions in the North, Midlands, East, South and London. Matching skills supply with industry demand through effective local targeting is critical and local government is committed to ensuring residents benefit from new employment opportunities. However, most employment and skills funding and programmes are nationally commissioned, which makes it difficult to meet, and respond to local need and demand. Energy efficiency measures are often delivered by local SMEs and there is potential to target policies to create jobs in deprived areas, including those most impacted by COVID-19, supporting the Government’s levelling up agenda.
Work Local is the LGA’s positive proposal for change, providing a platform for supporting the shift needed for the green and sustainability sectors. It provides a framework for an integrated and devolved employment and skills system that is fit for the future and should be used as a blueprint for skills and employment devolution that works for all people and places. The Government should back and fund the trialling of the Work Local model.
West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership is an example of what councils are doing now to develop low carbon skills locally. They have committed to achieve net zero by 2038 at the latest. The energy sector is identified as fundamental to the region’s success. The Combined Authority is scoping out the pathway to deliver on net zero and identify sub-sectors that will require skills and training support, for example scaling up domestic energy efficiency retrofit and increasing the pace and scale of deployment of heat pumps. Ensuring collaboration between stakeholders (including further education, employers and individuals) will ensure skills provision is geared up to deliver for a low carbon sector that is considered the cornerstone of regional activity.