Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to make more resources available for local authorities to (a) hire and (b) support staff with the expertise to deliver comprehensive decarbonisation plans.

Government recognises the important role local authorities can play in decarbonisation and clean growth.

Ministers have a limited role in local authority workforce issues. This is because councils are independent employers, responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces, including managing budgets to recruit and train staff. It is for local leaders to make these decisions within the resources that they have available, and we know many have recruited large, dedicated climate change teams, while others have secured carbon literacy training to ensure Planning Officers and other staff have the expertise they need to build decarbonisation into their functions.

In the Planning for the Future White Paper my department committed to develop a comprehensive resources and skills strategy for the planning sector to support the implementation of our reforms, which are aligned with Net Zero goals.

Net Zero is a priority for the whole of Government. DfT and BEIS have also taken steps to ensure local authorities have the necessary capabilities to take action locally. For example, the BEIS Local Energy Programme was established to help them fulfil this role, and Local Energy Hubs have been established to provide local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships with access to technical and commercial support for the initial stages of developing low carbon energy projects.