Transport Decarbonisation: Local Authority Toolkit
Summary
The purpose of this toolkit is to provide advice to local authorities on planning and taking measures to reduce carbon emissions from transport by:
- highlighting the benefits of different interventions
- setting out the actions local authorities can take to reduce carbon emissions
- sharing best practice and lessons learnt from case studies of successful schemes already delivering local benefits
- signposting local authorities to other published guidance and methodologies
Help for local authorities on electric vehicle charging infrastructure has also been published.
The measurement of social value in the built environment is a rapidly evolving area of practice.
Over the past 10 years government has spent more than £1 billion to incentivise the take-up of ultra-low emission cars. While there has been an increase in the number of ultra-low emission cars and the required charging infrastructure, carbon emissions from cars have not reduced in line with government’s initial expectations. The lack of an integrated plan with specific milestones for carbon reductions from cars has resulted in a lack of clarity over what value the public money should be delivering. As a result, the departments have not been able to demonstrate value for money from the amounts expended.
Government spends significant resources on delivering public services. In 2020-21, central government departments alone expected to spend £456 billion on the day-to-day running costs of public services, grants and administration. To get the best value from that spend, in the face of emerging operational challenges, government needs to be effective in how it manages and improves services.
For the next 15 to 25 years, in most industrialized countries the large Baby Boom generation will be reaching traditional retirement age and leaving the workforce. To respond to this exodus of talent, organizations must recognize the value of mature workers and develop strategies to retain and engage them.
The need for supply chain resilience has come to the fore during Covid-19, particularly with the difficulties of securing PPE, food, medicines and ventilators at the outset of the pandemic and have therefore become more of a focus for both government industrial policy and business resilience, with the efforts to secure vaccine supply in particular becoming a matter of national and international debate.
Effective asset management has become as critical as ever across the globe and in the face of mounting pressures, such as limited resources, grow-ing urban populations, shifting patterns of employment and land use, climate-related disruptions and health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic. All of these challenges are felt most acutely in our daily lives as we interact with our built environment and our physical and technical goods and infrastructure. These are our local assets, our common goods. As people turn to government for reliable infrastructure, services and protection, their first point of contact is the village, city or district administration.