The motion was moved by Councillor Southgate and seconded by Councillor Foley.

Councillor Andrew Howard spoke on the item.

The Labour amendment as set out in agenda item 21 was moved by Councillor Alambritis and seconded by Councillor Macauley.

Councillor Fairclough spoke on the amendment.

The Labour amendment was put to a vote and was carried – votes in favour: 31, votes against: 10, abstentions: 17.

The substantive motion (as amended) was then put to a vote and was carried – votes in favour: 37*, votes against: 3, abstentions: 18.

*Councillor McGrath requested that his vote be recorded as in favour after selecting the ‘not voting’ button in error.

RESOLVED:

Merton’s Climate Strategy and Action Plan was adopted by Council in November 2020 with cross party support.  The Plan aims to make the borough of Merton carbon neutral by 2050, with ambitions for the council to become a carbon neutral organisation by 2030.

Council notes:

·         Merton has one of the largest extend of self-funded solar panels across council buildings and schools

·         Retrofit measures in many council buildings has already taken place

·         Merton has installed the most school streets in London

·         Over 97% of carbon emissions in Merton are outside the council’s direct control

·         Merton is one of the greenest boroughs in London, with 24% tree canopy cover, and trees, grass or other natural surfaces covering almost half of the borough’s land.

·         In the past decade Merton has increased by 8 hectares the amount of publicly accessible green space in the borough.

Council further notes:

The Delivery Plan monitors progress towards these goals.  In year 1 the Plan records good progress on most workstreams, but further advances depend on external funding for two workstreams which are rated “Red” (RAG):

-          Retro fit of residential and non-residential building stock to decarbonise energy

-          Decarbonisation of LBM estate and fleet management

The scale of investment required is beyond Merton’s own resources, but central government has announced several initiatives to provide grants for projects aiming to achieve zero carbon:

-          10-point plan for a green industrial revolution (£12bn) includes green public transport, cycling and walking, but is existing government funding and is not allocated to be spent by Local Authorities.

-          Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (£1bn in 2020 + £0.5bn in prospect for 2021) for which Merton has applied for £0.5 million (awaiting outcome)

-          Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (£3.8 bn) open to bids from LA led consortia, which the Council cannot access but is in discussion with social housing providers that can

All of these grants are subject to competitive bids which require extensive research and documentation, yet must be submitted to tight deadlines.

Merton’s excellent but already stretched climate change team does not have the capacity to submit convincing bids for all the grants likely to be available in the future.  Winning even a fraction of these could be transformational in realising the ambitions of Merton’s Climate Action Plan.

Council therefore requests the Cabinet Member for Climate Change to work with senior officers across Future Merton, Facilities Management and Children, Schools and Families to optimise the resources available to submit winning bids for external funding.  In this competition there are no prizes for coming second.