18 August 2006
The Local Government Association has called for an additional £28m in central funding to councils to help them co-ordinate carbon emission reduction commitments, following the government's Energy Review.
The LGA submission to the Department of Trade and Industry's review, published last month, estimates that each council in England and Wales would require an extra £70,000 to implement and manage local carbon reduction programmes.
The cash is needed to 'join up initiatives within councils and to provide strategic and practical support to officers and members, as well as partner organisations and residents', the submission states.
Public bodies have become the focus of government attempts to reduce damaging CO2 emissions, through improved energy use and by encouraging investment in renewable energy sources.
The government wants to reduce emissions by 60% (of 1990 levels) by 2050. 'This spend would enable significant progress by those authorities which are finding resource pressures a barrier to action,' the LGA claims.
PFaug2006
