Southwark Council has announced it will spend “a proportion” of its dedicated £25m climate fund, after months of inaction.
In a statement to the Council Assembly delivered last week, Cllr Helen Dennis said the money would be spent on a range of environmental measures aimed at tackling climate change.
These include:
- £1m for replacing windows in tenanted street properties
- £5.42 for decarbonisation and energy efficiency savings in council libraries and community buildings to reduce their dependency on gas in favour of renewables
- An initial £1.1m investment in the Southwark Schools Decarbonisation Programme, which will focus on education and air-quality benefits
- £2.18 m to accelerate the installation of energy-saving LEDs in street lighting
- Additional investment in cycle storage and a transition to cleaner waste disposal vehicles.
Earlier this month the News reported that not a single pound from the council’s special climate fund had been spent since it was created in 2021.
All in all, Cllr Dennis’s commitments mean that £13.6m of the designated pot will be spent, however she has signalled more decisions are still to come.
79 per cent of all borough-wide emissions come from buildings, meaning investment in energy-saving efficiencies are a must if the council is to hit key climate targets.
“We are pleased that Southwark Labour listened to sense and sped up their decision-making,” said Liberal Democrat Cllr Graham Neale.
“The question is why did it take a year? One quick announcement will not stop the problem at its root: Labour is addicted to dither and delay when it comes to the climate emergency.”
The council has said the remainder of the money will be spent between now and 2030.
“This will leave funding still to be allocated through the rolling programme from the rolling plan in response to updating our action plan, taking account of recommendations from our Citizen’s Jury and other ongoing processes,” said Cllr Dennis.
“I am proud that we were one of the first councils to declare a climate emergency, the first council to signal its intention to divest from fossil fuels, and our climate action plan has recently been voted the second-best in London,” she added.
Lib Dem Cllr Victor Chamberlain, who first raised the issue of the unspent climate funds with the council, said: “It is not acceptable that it has taken Labour a year to use this fund to tackle the climate emergency. The clue is in the name: we have to act urgently.”
“We now need clarity about when this money will be spent and what impact it will have to tackle climate change,” he added.
Cllr Helen Dennis’s full statement can be read here.