North Kesteven District Council is leading the way on climate action in Lincolnshire

North Kesteven District Council is leading the way on climate action in Lincolnshire

North Kesteven District Council is the highest scoring council for climate action in Lincolnshire, according to Climate Emergency UK who published their second edition of the Council Climate Action Scorecards today, the only holistic analysis of all UK councils’ climate action.

North Kesteven District Council is one of only 62 councils across the UK scoring 50% or more on climate action. Lincoln City Council was close behind, scoring 49% to be the second highest scoring council in Lincolnshire.

Elsewhere scores vary across the county, with Lincolnshire County Council and Boston Borough council scoring the lowest on 20% and 22% respectively. The average score across the East Midlands was 32%, whilst the average across England was 38%. 

This is the second time that Climate Emergency UK has undertaken this holistic assessment of what councils can do for climate action, what they can do to lower carbon emissions, cut residents' energy bills, protect and create more space for nature and provide better public transport, among other things. The Scorecards are created by assessing councils according to a three stage marking process using primarily publicly available data from council websites, available before November 2024, as well as national data and Freedom Of Information responses from councils from Autumn 2024.

Whilst UK average scores remain low at 38%, 80% of all UK councils saw an increase in their Scorecard results since 2023. All councils in Lincolnshire saw their scores improve, except North East Lincolnshire Council who dropped down 4 percentage points from 35% to 31%, and Boston Borough Council who stayed at 22%. 

Annie Pickering, Operations Director at Climate Emergency UK, said: “The majority of councils in Lincolnshire have improved their Scorecard results since 2023, showing that councils, along with residents, want to prioritise climate action to improve their lives and communities. 

"Yet the average overall score increase since 2023 was just 6 percentage points, and in Lincolnshire the average increase was lower at 4 percentage points. This shows that councils across the UK are struggling to step up their climate action at the emergency pace needed because there are nationwide barriers making it harder for councils to deliver effective climate action that would cut residents’ bills, make their homes warmer and raise funds for cash strapped local governments. These Scorecards provide proof of where councils need real investment from the national government so that every council can improve their score by 20 percentage points or more each time to make real progress towards cleaner, safer and more prosperous zero emission  communities we need to thrive.”  

Despite the small overall improvement, there are 58 councils across the UK that scored over 80% in one or more sections, such as Planning & Land Use, Buildings & Heating and Transport. Locally, no council scored above 80% on any section, although North Kesteven District was the nearest, scoring 70% in Collaboration & Engagement and 74% in Planning & Land Use. 

This means that North Kesteven is taking significant action to make new and existing homes warmer and cheaper to heat by having strong climate commitments in their Planning policy and are working with residents on local climate action, as well as businesses, schools, health and other institutions, whilst providing clear and transparent updates on their decarbonisation progress.

Miss Pickering continued, “The government may have a target for net zero by 2050, but these Scorecards results show that they are not doing enough to support communities and councils across the UK to decarbonise. With local government reorganisation on the table in Lincolnshire, we want to see a legal duty to tackle climate change embedded in the new authorities created, as the Greater London Authority already has. Doing this would ensure councils have the funds and powers to protect residents from flooding, air pollution and rising energy prices that we know that residents care about, and allow councils to work beyond the next election cycle.”

Across the country, councils run by different political parties (Labour, Conservative, Lib Dems and in No Overall Control) all saw their scores increase, showing commitment to cutting costs and improving the lives of residents by tackling the climate emergency. This aligns with residents' desires: the most recent poll in the UK showed that 72% of people, up 8 percentage points since 2022, are concerned about the impacts of climate change.