Climate, Energy and Environment Committee - Tuesday 25 March 2025, 2:00pm - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Climate, Energy and Environment Committee
Tuesday, 25th March 2025 at 2:00pm 

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  1. James Mowbray, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Martyn Broadest, Advisory Representative (West Yorks Housing Partnership)
  3. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
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  1. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
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  1. Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  4. Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  5. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  6. Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  8. Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  9. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  10. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  11. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
  12. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  13. John Clark (Private Sector Representative)
  14. Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  15. John Clark (Private Sector Representative)
  16. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  17. Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  18. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
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  1. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  3. Cllr Jack Hemingway (Wakefield Council)
  4. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  5. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  6. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  7. Leah Stuart (Private Sector Representative)
  8. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  9. Cllr Katie Dye (Leeds City Council)
  10. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  11. Jim Cardwell, Advisory Representative (Northern Powergrid)
  12. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  13. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  14. Jim Cardwell, Advisory Representative (Northern Powergrid)
  15. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  16. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  17. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  18. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  19. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  20. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  21. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  22. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  23. Cllr Sarah Ferribly (Bradford Council)
  24. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  25. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  26. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  27. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  28. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
  29. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  30. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
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  1. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  2. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  3. Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  4. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  5. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  6. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  7. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  8. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  9. Martyn Broadest, Advisory Representative (West Yorks Housing Partnership)
  10. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  11. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  12. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  13. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
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  1. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  2. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
  3. Martyn Broadest, Advisory Representative (West Yorks Housing Partnership)
  4. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  5. Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  6. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  7. Andrew Thomson Advisory Representative (Yorkshire Water)
  8. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  9. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  10. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
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  1. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  3. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
  4. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  5. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
  6. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  7. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  8. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  9. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  10. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  11. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  12. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  13. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  14. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  15. Cllr Katie Dye (Leeds City Council)
  16. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  17. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  18. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  19. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  20. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  21. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
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  1. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  2. Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  4. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  5. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  6. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  7. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  8. Andrew Thomson Advisory Representative (Yorkshire Water)
  9. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  10. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  11. Cllr Katie Dye (Leeds City Council)
  12. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  13. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  14. Cllr Jack Hemingway (Wakefield Council)
  15. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  16. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  17. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
  18. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  19. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
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  1. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  3. Martyn Broadest, Advisory Representative (West Yorks Housing Partnership)
  4. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  5. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  6. Leah Stuart (Private Sector Representative)
  7. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  8. Leah Stuart (Private Sector Representative)
  9. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  10. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  11. Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative)
  12. Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  13. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
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  1. Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  3. Webcast Finished

1 Apologies for Absence

James Mowbray, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:00:24
We've got apologies from Ian Holmes from NHS West, United Kingdom, and the NHS.
Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, we've got Jason Willis with us from Northern Gas Networks
instead of Greg Dodd, and we've got Paul Gee's from Jim Cardwell of Northern Power Grid,
and Adam Ashman of Yorkshire Water, but Adam, sorry Andrew Thompson, or Thompson is with
us instead.
Okay.
Thank you.
Martyn Broadest, Advisory Representative (West Yorks Housing Partnership) - 0:01:11
My organization I work for Connect Housing is likely to be a beneficiary of the way three stroke
mayor's funding for retrofit the social.
I think we do pick that up later on as well.
Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council - 0:01:27
So thank you for that.
Exempt information, possible exclusion of press and public.
There's nothing.
It's all going to be streamed today.
So there's no private elements at all.
And the first thing really is minutes of last meeting.

2 Declaration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

Does everyone agree?

3 Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

Has everyone reviewed?

4 Minutes of the Meeting of the Climate, Energy and Environment Committee held on 26 November 2024

I thought Cheryl wasn't there so yeah Scott. Yeah thanks chair I'm happy to recommend them as a
correct record. Perfect thank you. Okay I'm just moving to the chairs update and

5 Monitoring Indicators

Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council - 0:02:06
just a few new faces around the room first of all welcome to Councillor
Ahmed, welcome to the committee. You're attending your first meeting.
Very welcome.
Yes, yes, that's our aim. We should be hopefully finished by four 30. So yeah,
but we're very welcome. Okay. Um,
and then Fatima who's not, who's not here either. Um,
so Fatima is attending her first meeting. She'll be here, uh,
Representing the mayor's inclusivity. She's the mayor's inclusivity champion. She is going to join us moving forward
and as mentioned James you mentioned about Gail coming on behalf of the
Andrew joining for Yorkshire water
Right, okay. Okay, okay
Thank you very much. Just before we turn to the main items on the agenda
I just wanted members to know that the electrical vehicle strategy which we previously had a discussion on in this committee
Is about to be presented to the transport committee next month for adoption. So just really to give you an update
Yeah, and possibly positive
reception
Next item is the monitoring indicators
He you're going to present the monitoring indicators for us over to you
Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:03:31
Thank you very much as usual. We give a quick update on the most recent state of the region indicator
for for the committee
I'll go briefly through greenhouses emissions building energy efficiency
and there's others in the paper, but I'll
Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:03:46
Short a recap and then I'll focus on some indicators that we found it. They are not in the state of the region
They are quite new but we thought it would be interesting to share on the boiler upgrade scheme the pickups
The warm homes discount and then they don't electricity consumption and electricity
generated by renewables in the area. So in the greenhouse emissions, the latest
data we have is 2022, it shows a decline of 7 % and it puts us back to the
downward trend that was interrupted in 2021. This reduction is in line with
England. In terms of how much we emit per person, we emit a bit less than England,
only Wakefield emits more and when we look at the components the main
difference between West Yorkshire and England it's about agriculture related
emissions that we don't emit much due to our urban nature while it accounts for
half of the difference that England emits more than us on average. In terms
of sources, transport emissions has been declining but it's a bit
persistence, it doesn't decline as much as other sources like domestic and
industrial and due to this trend nowadays is the largest contributor that
we have, 35 % of our emissions. In terms of energy efficiency, the latest
A2F for March 2024 put us on 42 % of dwellings with EPCC or above, which was
an improvement of three percentage points, so the improvement is in line
what England as a whole had in the same period, but the share of houses with
EBCC or above in England are around 50 % and we should get new data soon so we
can present in the next committee. As I said we have data on the boiler upgrade
scheme, so this is a scheme that started in 2022, so we have data on the grants
between May 2022 and December 24 and it's basically a grant to incentivize
the deployment of low energy heating technologies like heat pumps and so far
we got one thousand one hundred and thirty four grants in West Yorkshire
which is slightly less than three percent of all grants paid in England
and Wales and it is point one one percent so nine eleven percent of the
existing dwellings in the area in England the program has been not point
16 % so more than what we have in terms of dwellings, but
Apparently combined authorities are mostly underperforming and we have the second highest
Take up rates be behind South Yorkshire. There is the highest one but still below the national average
In terms of the warm homes discount we have data for the fiscal year
23 -24 around 3 .1 million households received this in the country which is roughly 11 percent of the population
For us it is 15 percent more than
150 households and it varies from
12 percent in Leeds more or less in line with national level up to 20 percent in Bradford
And we have the lowest proportion of households receiving the scheme within the six metropolitan counties.
In terms of electricity consumption, domestic use is around 40 % of consumption nowadays, of all electricity consumption.
We consume 7 % less domestic electricity than England, but within the combined authorities in the north and Midlands we perform quite high in terms of consumption.
And in terms of renewable electricity, we have data now that we can see the progress in the last decades, so between 2014 and 2024.
Renewable electricity generated by renewables increased in the period 55 percent,
mostly driven by Calderdale, where renewables increased 2 .5 times and its contribution to our
renewables was 14 percent of all renewables generated to one -third now. And when we compare
how much we produce in renewables with our consumption, we move from 3 percent of our
consumption being met by renewables to almost 6%. And within Colterdale the
largest contributor would be around 1 .5 to 20%. Our composition has been growing
wind, onshore wind and photovoltaic so currently it accounts for 71 % of the
energy accounted as renewable. In terms of combined authorities we see clear
differences between I would say three groups. The more rural ones or with a
large rural area so north of Tyne, Northeast now and Cambridge and
Peterborough that they generate around 40 % of the electricity the equivalent of
what they consume in renewables. Then we have Tees Valley, South Yorkshire west of
England where what they produce is around 10 % and then there are the most
urban ones where we're included. So Liverpool, GM, West Midlands, and ourselves.
Within those we are the ones that produce more renewables compared with
consumption partially because of Colorado. So around 6 % while the others
are around 2 .5 % to 3%. That's all. Thank you Guy. Can I ask the first question?
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:09:38
And regarding the warm home discount scheme, what do we think is the underlying reason why West Yorkshire has the lowest proportion of households receiving it?
Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:09:48
So the criteria would be income and energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency doesn't seem to explain it.
Income potentially.
I mean, Greater Manchester, for example,
average incomes are higher, but we know there
are quite some pockets of poverty.
So I would be inclined to be more
on the income side of things.
Because we do not have an outstanding performance in EPC.
I mean, EPC are the flaws, but it is a proxy.
Yeah, I mean, Scott just said, I wonder if there's a better
way to map that.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:10:27
Likewise, I think for me, when I initially read it,
I actually thought, is it because households aren't entitled,
or are they just not applying for it?
Are they not aware, so therefore is a marketing issue?
I think I probably would like a little bit more information,
if possible, on this one.
Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:10:50
We can at least do further comparisons to understand if for our levels of energy efficiency,
and for example deprivation if we do underperform and if so probably if there's some communication
work.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:11:02
Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:11:04
I mean that can be done all the time but we will look at it.
Okay, question.
It was a comment I think really just to aid I think the discussion.
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:11:12
I think through the work that we've been doing in Home Energy West Yorkshire I think there
there is a real misunderstanding and a miss knowledge of these
grants available um which I think has is having a
significant impact on take up um so um in our paper will
update where we are with the one stop shop and the
indication is that we will have a broad um sign posting
of all opportunities of grant funding that residents can um
apply for and seek information on in order to spread that
awareness that these grants are there available um and
but obviously if people are able to apply for those,
then we can support them through that work.
Excellent, thank you Jessica.
Any other questions?
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:11:55
Yeah, I mean, just thank you.
Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council - 0:11:59
And just on that, I wonder if there's a thing
about looking beyond our own avenues
in terms of pushing out those messages for where they are.
So the best will in the world, local authorities
and combined authorities might not necessarily
be where people look.
So thinking about community foundations
and local voluntary community sector organizations who might be able to partner with us to do
some of that signposting as well might be helpful in future take -up.
Just a final point as well on another issue.
It was just a point on the Tyndall proxy emission reduction line which is in the carbon budget.
It might be helpful if it's added to the CO2 graph so committee members around the room
could see the degree of divergence between our performance and our targets a little bit
more clearly.
As an aside, it's good to see that social housing landlords
are leading on having very energy efficient homes.
I guess how that gap can be narrowed in privately owned
homes is an area which needs that extra level
of intervention.
Thanks, Scott.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:13:03
I mean, I think there's a lot of positives
and some really good underlying results this time around.
So that's great.
Anybody else got any questions for Guy?
Okay
John Clark (Private Sector Representative) - 0:13:19
It's just an interesting point you've noted in there about the
level of domestic energy consumption particularly in sort of Cambridge and Peterborough and as it related to
How much renewable energy was dumped household was hiring Peterborough and Cambridge as well
so just whether or not there was any any investigation or link between that bit of
of implying that if people have got opportunity for lower cost electricity
or low cost renewables is that helping drive the adoption of more electrical
Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:14:00
power in that community? It's something I'll have a look at the trends. At looking
at the places it looks like income it's probably a driving factor for example
Northeast has a lot of renewable and still on the bottom but I will have a
look beyond the trends to understand in the last decade if consumption and
renewables if they diverge in one place from the other based on the take -ups.
John Clark (Private Sector Representative) - 0:14:22
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:14:26
Thanks. Okay thank you. Andrew. Thank you. I think you made the point about EPCs and
the reliability of the data. I was just wondering whether or not there was any
sort of proxy information in the planning information
that's held about conversions that have been done
since the time when EPCs have come out.
I mean, obviously a lot of EPCs will be vintage,
you know, 10 years or more old.
And some people will go and make interventions
to reduce that, but then there's been a lot of extensions.
And I see, particularly with the pandemic,
a sort of an explosion in people expanding
the size of their properties.
So whilst they may have been improving with insulation
and other interventions, they may be increasing
due to the expanding size of properties and I just wonder if planning data also
holds some proxy information which we're using to augment that sort of section
that you've got on building energy efficiency. It's not an easy one I know
but it's an interesting area to look into. It is something that we never tried
Guilherme Rodrigues Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:15:21
but it's it's a great idea because we know the flaws and any proxy that we
can to complement it. It's something we'll look on.
Excellent, thank you, thank you Guy.
Okay, next one is over to Noel.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:15:35
So over to you Noel on our draft Climate and Environmental Plan of Sight and Times.

6 Draft Climate and Environment Plan 2025 - 2038

Thank you very much Chair.
So as you've seen in the pack, the purpose of the paper really is to receive your final views on the Climate Plan prior to it going to the Combined Authority on the 3rd of April.
so not long now before we get there. Before I kind of give a little bit of an overview and I won't go
into depth in this because there's a lot of papers as you'll have seen associated with the document
so you'll be pleased to know I'm not going to go on for ages talking about every single one in there
but just to note a lot of work has gone into the plan to get it to this stage so there's a
there's a really big thank you to everyone who's kind of provided that feedback and engaged in
in the whole process that we started over a year ago now.
And I extend that to kind of the committee as well
for your valuable input throughout the process
and also to the combined authorities
kind of scrutiny members for their working alongside us
to make the plan more robust as well.
And I just wanted to touch in terms on some of the points
that scrutiny members have recently made.
The team and I have had a number of sessions
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:16:51
over the last couple of months
with scrutiny members to gain their input and make, as I said, the plan a lot more robust.
The last of those happened on Friday, so we had a really productive session around that.
And they asked that kind of three key strategic points were flagged to committee that they've
made.
So I'll just quickly go through those.
The first is around the inclusion of scope three missions in procurement practices, with
view to it being widened through the CA's influential roles of regional systems enabler.
The second is around further clarity on where investment will be prioritised and in which
programmes. And then the third point which is connected is around accountability for
strategic alignment needs to be clearly established and transparent so conflicts between priorities
can be suitably identified and resolved. So there's three points that Scrutiny wanted
you to note. Just in terms of the response of the plan to some of those I
thought it would be worthwhile responding to those so you have the
context in terms of how the plan has addressed those. So in terms of the first
one around those scope three emissions so anybody who's really kind of wants
to dig into the detail around what we say around scope three emissions I'll
direct you to appendix one of the plan itself it talks there about scope three
emissions. They are excluded from our evidence base as hopefully you've all
seen as well and we did that because of how complex they are and also that
lack of regional and kind of ability to influence those types of emissions.
That being said they absolutely is the hooks within the document for scope 3
emissions so they are considered or will be considered as part of our own
corporate climate plan, so really focusing down on what we can influence in terms of
the purchasing power that we have as an organisation. We already do to some extent address Scope
3 emissions in some of the programmes and support that we provide, so the one I would
highlight is our business support programme and what we do and that advice that we provide
to SMEs, so very much helping them on their journey to really address everything from
scope one to three and also sometimes those SMEs scope one and two emissions or other
kind of organisations scope threes too so we need to factor that in as well.
And then in terms of our own kind of capital programme of activity we're implementing carbon
management plans which absolutely do consider whole life carbon of the interventions that
we're doing as an organisation.
So there's really a focus on knowing what those impacts are and giving decision makers
that information to hand.
So that's on scope three.
In terms of the clarity around prioritisation and what programmes, so the plan as hopefully
comes out within it is really co -designed across the directorates and stakeholders that
are fed into this work.
So we've designed it in a way that the business plans of the combined authority are absolutely
aligned to what is in this plan.
So there's that direct read across from what is in the plan into what the combined authority
is absolutely delivering.
So that's the first point.
So we're ensuring complementarity there.
In terms of how we go a bit further on that, so we talk about further project development
being needed on the activity that's in there.
absolutely recognise that. That'll be the point at which we really do hone in on the level of
investment and emission reductions that we're going to achieve through this. And then final
point really on that is we are clear on priorities and there's a diagram, can't remember what page
it's on, which really hones down into the priority for this is around the decarbonisation of transport
and modal shift and that low carbon heating from homes but not looking at those in isolation.
The system has to work as a whole and emissions have to be driven down across that system
to make sure we do achieve what we want to do in those two areas. And then in three in terms of
that accountability, so this doesn't stand alone, it doesn't sit on its own in some ivory tower
somewhere. This is very much aligned with all the way down from West Yorkshire
plan at the very top of the tree in terms of our approach through the local
growth plan and then down into the climate plan, the local transport plan,
housing strategy. It is absolutely aligned but it's also from the bottom up
as well because it takes account of what the districts are talking about in their
climate plans as well so making sure that that is representative as well. We
will be reporting of progress and oversight will happen both internally
through our board structures and but also via this committee as well and we
set out some of the detail around that in appendix four of the plan as well and
we'll implement all of this to mitigate any potential conflicts that might arise.
I think that probably covers off kind of the points from scrutiny
hopefully I've done justice to to where that sits but gives a bit of context and
as I say you know this is an opportunity to receive your final
views on kind of the plan before it goes to the combined authority so happy to
hand back to you chair and take any questions from committee thank you know
then as you said it's our last chance I think is an absolute brilliant document
and I truly believe this is something that you know it will form the basis
really of this committee moving forward and everything should hang off it really
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:22:39
so so thank you so I'm going to open it up to the floor for questions comments
Yes, Jack.
Thank you, Chair.
Yeah, can I echo your comments to officers
and thank them for all the really good work
that's gone into this.
This is a really good document
Cllr Jack Hemingway (Wakefield Council) - 0:22:48
and it's starting to set out clearly
a bit more of that vision for West Yorkshire
and I really like the case studies
which I think bring it to life.
Just wanna touch on a couple of points and thoughts.
I know certainly council members of the committee
are a little bit approached by some of the interest groups
friends of the earth who are in this space
and have looked at the plan.
And I think they were lighted on a comment
that does come through to me
when I read this document in terms of some of the actions
in the sort of table sections aren't perhaps as specific
and measurable as they could be.
There's a lot of really good stuff there,
but sometimes it's quite aspirational
rather than specific measurable timescales, et cetera.
So I wonder if we could look at being a bit more specific
on some of those actions.
I appreciate it's a changing quality landscape
and it's not possible for every action,
But I do think we should try and be a bit more specific where we can about
financing and time scales for delivering some of these actions. I think the idea of a rag chart or some more visually
amenable way to measure it and monitor the plan both at this committee and in general
transparently for the public would be would be welcome as well and I do welcome your comments early Noel on aligning more closely with
With local authority plans. I think it's key that it goes both ways
It's not just a one -way street that local authorities are seeking to align to this as well as the combined authority
Sending it that way so overall very much welcome it
But I do wonder if we could be more specific on how we set out the actions within the plan. Thank you, sir
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:24:20
Thanks councilor Hemingway, do you want to respond to that Noel or have you just got it?
I think
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:24:27
It's a real it's a point well made in terms of and that is something that we have heard
in a number of kind of forums in terms of ensuring that there is the specificity and
that there is that measurable nature of the actions itself. I think we endeavour to do
that as part of kind of the work where we are fully developing the nature of the actions
so that we can really hone down in in terms of what is the timescale we're looking at,
what is the funding cost of these things. So for us it very much is part of next stages
in terms of those actions and making sure that we are really firm. Because I think at
this point in time we didn't want to, this kind of an overcommit in terms of given the
changing policy landscape as you've kind of talked about around putting something in this
that ends up being out of date in two, three months, something like that. So we will endeavour
to make it more specific, kind of the actions more specific as we move into that real project
delivery side of things. I do like the idea of the reg though, particularly
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:25:29
for this committee meeting just to see where we are in the planet. That's a great idea.
Okay. Leah.
Leah Stuart (Private Sector Representative) - 0:25:36
Hi. Again, amazing piece of work. Enormous. And well done. But I just wanted to pick up
a couple of things about the transport strategy. And you've kind of gone through the different
modes and I just picked up that the interaction between modes perhaps doesn't come across.
I mean I was looking at the rail and mass transit as well and those things
only work if we've got first and last mile and those active travel links so
it's not people make these multimodal journeys all the time so that just needs
to be reflected because it'll only work if we've got that interconnected system.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:26:13
Okay thank you. Councillor Dye.
Thank you and I also welcome it and I was going to bring a jack's point.
And I think the case studies really bring it to life
Cllr Katie Dye (Leeds City Council) - 0:26:23
and animate it.
I think it's, and it's very nicely set out as well,
visually, it looks good.
I just had a few things that came up
as I was reading through it.
And a couple of them are about the responses
to stakeholder engagement.
And they're in the report at 3 .15 and 1 .6.
And one of them was about reference to the airport.
and clearly in the document you explain the issues around aviation.
But I wondered whether there's scope to kind of set decarbonisation of the operations and
the building of the airport apart from the actual problem of flying and sustainable fuels
and things like that.
And then on the next one down, a comment about dietary changes outside the control and influence.
And I guess that's partly true. I don't think it's entirely true.
But I think there is certainly something we can look at in terms of waste, food waste streams.
And you know, what about the food that we're serving in our local authority settings?
So I think there's scope for possibly including that.
And then, oh my next one was page 97, was it?
It was something about homes.
Oh, yeah, it is page 97.
In the actions and the asks of government, whether we could be really clear about and ask about new build standards
and what can be done in terms of improving the ability of ourselves to
make demands of developers in terms of the standard of houses that they're building.
And then also a comment which I think has just previously been made about
linking with local authorities own plans. I think that's something that as it
moves forward as a working document
is going to be really important.
And then just to finish,
I was going to refer to the scrutiny,
but Noel, you've kind of picked that up,
so thank you for doing that,
and it's good to see the idea of scope threes
being considered, because it's massive,
and we can't escape the enormity
of trying to get scope threes right,
both for our own emissions,
but also in terms of encouraging SMEs, as you mentioned.
So thank you for picking that up.
Noel, do you want to comment?
Or I think Richard, did you have your hand up?
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:29:12
Should we go to Richard and then if that's all right?
Thank you.
And again, I just want to express thanks
because it's a very well thought through document.
Jim Cardwell, Advisory Representative (Northern Powergrid) - 0:29:20
It was particularly taken by the leading partner
in influencing.
I think that's something those who've
been in the committee for a long time
have been trying to get clear and to communicate to people
as well.
So it's well done on that.
Just two or three questions, really, observations.
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 0:29:34
I think the first one's a reinforcing point from what
Councillor McField said.
So it might just be a question of reframing it,
because I wholeheartedly endorse the idea,
if you go too specific, it's not going to work at the minute.
But e .g., when I look at page 23, you get excited.
It says, wow, secure, cost effective,
and clean energy for all.
So you think you're going to read something
about how every household in West Yorkshire are going to get secure, cost -effective and
clean energy. And then what you actually read is establishing a multi -million pound fund.
That's great, by the way. I'm really happy about that. The carbon as a public sector,
also happy about that. And then collaborate with pan -North and Northern mayors. And you
look at it and you look at the title and you look at the actions, and they just don't match
at the minute, right? But there is a story, which you've already explained, and the story
is at the moment all this can be is a framework and more detail will follow. So I just think
just say it, right?
And secondly on brand and so on, and I hope, I thought this before I came in, this is a
really, really good plan. But I'm a lawyer, I like reading stuff, it's really big, and
whether we like it or not, we live in an age of how the President of the United States
communicates. So we need a rag, we need something on one page that people can read quickly and
say got it, I can see what's going on in West Yorkshire. We don't need to use caps lock,
we don't need to say it's stupendous, but we do need to do something, okay, because
this is too big a thing for a senior lawyer to digest.
So if that's the case.
So and then a couple, if that's OK,
a couple of just detailed points.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:31:20
One, we've been through this in the committee before.
Jim Cardwell, Advisory Representative (Northern Powergrid) - 0:31:21
Page 99 talks about the massive role of heat pumps,
retrofitting.
A point that I've made too many times
is just about where we're getting
partnerships in the private sector,
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 0:31:33
closing the title of a private sector representative.
I'd like to see more on that.
I get it's probably too late to change it, but then that leads finally to the final one.
We talked about the case studies illuminating things.
It might not be for now because it's not about the plan, but you actually showcase the joint
venture, you've got Gondola Centrica and SSE.
I think that happened like a year ago, and I'm unaware of whether that's progressed,
how it's progressed, or whether anything's happened other than there was a nice photo
shoot in that.
So that sounds a bit provocative, but that's – it's something we've all got over.
case studies are fantastic but I just literally don't know whether that's progressed at all beyond
beyond the photo. Now that might not be for this forum now it just happened to be in there.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:32:15
So thank you. Thanks Richard. I think that last point might be covered on agenda item 13.
Noel says he hopes so so we'll definitely pick that one. Noel do you want to make any comments
towards Councillor Dye and Richard Goodfellas? Where to start? I suppose in terms of the airport
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:32:33
side of things. I think there is potential to terms of kind of look at it
from an operations in terms of the buildings on the ground side of things
and separate that from the flight side of things. The building should be
included in our footprint anyway and the evidence base because they are just a
non -domestic building like any others so they're incorporated into that and any
support that we provide for non -domestic building extends to that as well so our
programs around that should cover that on the ground operations and I
we do have that interface with our transport colleagues around trying to
make sure the surface transport access to that airport is as sustainable as
possible as well. So I think there's things there that help us address some
of that. Dietary change side of things. So it's one that people have kind
of referenced a number of times when we've been in kind of conversations
around what they should do, what they shouldn't do and I think
there's always a bit of a where do we sit in terms of that food waste or
change but I think the food waste side of things should be picked up in some of the
work that colleagues do in the inclusive economy around the business kind of piece and resource
efficiency economy type of thing. We should bring some of that out there so that we actually
can look at those waste streams and how they can be utilised but also if we come back to
the point around scope three emissions and our corporate approach I think that kind of
there to look at how do we combine as a collective around influencing our
canteens our kind of catering things and could come into that kind of space as
well so I think that's that's for maybe our own operations one. I don't know if
Jess you wanted to come in in terms of that new new build standards piece at
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:34:23
all sorry to put you on the spot. Yeah it's very much something that we have
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:34:25
active conversations with we need to make sure that new builds are not the
retrofit requirements the future and so it's how we influence and as the
council said demand and seek that change particularly where we've provided
funding through our brownfield housing fund schemes we need to strengthen our
voice to ensure that those standards are met but actually exceeded and so we'll
continue to do that and seeking partnership conversation where we can do
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:34:52
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:34:57
And then just in terms of Richard's point, so yeah we can look at the kind of maybe just
a quick quick kind of re -look at kind of the wording on there just to tighten up on that
and we can we can go and have a quick look at that. In terms of presentation, absolutely
this is just your draft document that you see in front of you and we already have our
digital team lined up to be able to kind of do some nice graphics and to do some
smaller versions of that so absolutely will do and then hopefully as chair you
say in item I think it's 12 we will talk a little bit about the partnership and
where we've got to with that. Okay thanks Noel. Any other Councillor Pateron?
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:35:42
Oh sorry Councillor Ferriby. Yeah thank you. Just one point is around the
Cllr Sarah Ferribly (Bradford Council) - 0:35:46
decarbonisation and delivering of skills target because we've been talking about that for a long, long time.
And it's how is the combined authority going to be the conduit to training and businesses?
Because obviously we've got a lot of work to do, but we need people with those skills and we need them pretty quickly.
So we need a lot of work as I see it now to actually prepare for the next two, three and four years.
Otherwise we won't have the skills base. It's very much similar like the building industry.
You know, we've got a lot of building to do. We want those skills in at the right time in the right place.
So everything marries up.
Like you say not going back to retrofitting and I just wondered if you could expand on how you
see that panning out because like we say this this big money tree in pound signs
but we don't have a plant and it's something that actually I think is sort
of like here and now and grassroots for the future thank you
and so just on skill so and I'll do my very best to kind of articulate the
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:37:00
skill side of things it's not kind of area that I kind of sit in in terms of
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:37:05
What I know in terms of our colleagues on the skills side of things, they certainly
do see that a large proportion of their programme of work that they've got for the future is
going to be focused very much on the green skills kind of agenda because they accept
that it is and it's reflected in our local growth plan around it being a growth sector,
so they already know that we need to do something about this and we need to move on it quite
quickly. So I think it's something like a quarter of the kind of their program or
a third of their program is going to be focused on how do we increase that with
that breadth and depth of kind of skills that and training offer that we have so
that people can service the needs and to get to net zero by 2038. But I can take
that way and get a lot more information for you. I am, do you want to go in Jess?
Sorry. Thanks Noel. I can just add a bit more context to that Councillor. So in the
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:37:59
Home Energy West Yorkshire team, we have a dedicated number of colleagues working on
skills and supply chain alongside and with our colleagues in skills.
We're developing a skills action plan to understand what we know, what we don't know and where
is our investment best focused to.
Because it's not necessarily about new skills, it's ensuring that the people that are skilled
can diversify and into new areas of work.
and we're very aware in terms of the
Constraints of construction skills not just and in terms of new build and retrofit, but also the call on
Construction skills for mass transit and and the the growing areas of need and so there is a lot of activity
Commencing and building and in order that we can understand where we're best targeting our investment and development of that skills growth
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:38:53
Is it worth just thinking on that having that on an agenda for a future meeting this year on Green Skills? I don't think we've touched on it for a while actually.
Yeah, OK, Councillor patient. Thank you.
I was deleting bits there as I mentioned, so I won't repeat the same things that have been covered elsewhere.
Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council - 0:39:07
We're just to add to the chorus of thanks for officers and also to the scrutiny board as well for bringing those points actually really important that you've you've you've picked those bits out and actually got to see the alignment within the plan.
that's there as well. Yeah clearly our councils are key partners in
this and it's not for now but as the plan does grow and adapt and shift and
opportunities arise in our various spaces be they wind farms, be they
wetlands or anything else, not going to be drawn on that, it will be
important to have some of that local alignment and make sure that sort of
partnership working in subsidiarity is in place. So where these discussions
belonging to make it up just on Leah's point around the idea about the final
mile and just making sure we get the balance right as this goes forward so
it's clear you know obviously I'm pushing for mass transit is higher up
the chain than active travel ditto low carbon heat in clearer ambition than
retrofits or making sure that we're constantly mapping and making sure that
those things are in the right places. Mass transit great for Bradford
and Leeds perhaps not so great for Wakefield and Colerdale so making sure
we all feels like it feels like it works for everyone.
And just a bit of a thing about the investment
and the climate fund work and consider how that can support
the retrofit work that we need to do.
And I know that'll be something that's not just discussed
here, but also in other things.
It's an endorsement, it's just with some little points
in there, so please don't take that as a negative.
Okay, thank you, Scott.
Noel, any comments to pick up or take it from us?
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:40:47
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:40:49
Just to reaffirm that absolutely we're really committed to that partnership working as we
move into the delivery side of this.
As a collective we're stronger so absolutely we'll be working with our local authorities
to deliver against this.
Okay, thank you.
Any further questions?
Okay, well thank you and I hope it goes well when you present it to the authority on the
3rd of April. Thank you. We look forward to hearing about it and well done. Okay, thank you. Next over to Jessica.

7 Home Energy West Yorkshire

Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:41:23
Thank you chair. Good afternoon everyone.
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:41:24
And so it's an update here in terms of the activity and progress across a number of work streams
Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:41:35
for Home Energy West Yorkshire and just a reminder for those that the focus for the team is
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:41:37
achieving domestic
decarbonization across homes across West Yorkshire and
and working towards our collective ambitions for net zero by 2038.
So activity and delivery continues at pace across a number of key areas as noted in the report.
But just starting with the current activity that we have around social housing.
So we have now commenced with our social housing decarbonization plan,
which will be a plan to inform the strategic approach to the delivery of future schemes,
supporting the implementation of retrofit and renewables across the social housing sector.
So we have had a successful workshop with EST who are leading that piece of work on our behalf
with partners looking at what the plan should have, could have
and they have now commenced with collecting and initial analysis of data from West Yorkshire Housing Partnerships
and that work will be developed over the next year
and we are planning to bring future iterations to committee members
and potentially I'll come on to a point in a moment and a private members workshop where we can look at some of the data and
Some of the one -stop shop information that's coming through in order that you can really understand and interrogate that information as it comes available
Moving on an update on the current position of the warm homes social housing fund wave 3 bid and
So as you know
We did make a submission bid to secure funding for way 3
To deliver a really ambitious program across West Yorkshire which would see retrofit measures delivered to just under 9 ,000 homes
in the region
It was a collective strategic partnership bid with 10 of our registered housing providers
Joining us in that the bid was for 50 just over 54 million pounds of grant funding which would have unlocked
54 million pounds in co funding and so we really scaled up our ambition and our program there and to take forward
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:43:38
the bid. The demand has been significantly high nationwide and bids exceeded the funding
that was available via DESNEZ. At the time of writing this report, we had received an
indication that all grant recipients would receive at least 40 % of the bid. The time
has progressed and it's moving at pace and we have now had confirmation that we will
receive at 25 .6 million pounds worth of investment, which is about 47 % of our original bid request.
So that is now requiring us to re profile the program and we need to submit a revised
bid to that value of 25 .6 million this week on the 28th of March. So there's a considerable
amount of effort and activity underway with the team and in partnership with our registered
housing providers in order that we can realign that program to that funding. In
that respect, we will be continuing with what we were already intending to do and
that is seeking additional support through the mayoral social housing
enabling fund. During the process of our wave 3 bid, we held a workshop with our
consortium partners to understand and identify where we've learned lessons
through wave one and 2 .1 around some of the key challenges
that are impacting on delivery.
Two key areas came out that are really
impacting on us being able to deliver our programs as
originally required to do so.
And they are the absence of technical surveys.
At the big stage, we do make assumptions
around housing stock data.
And when the program commences, full -scale surveys begin.
but that does tend to impact on survey results and stock data not being as expected,
leading to planned changes to the programs and delays in projects execution.
In addition, we are measuring a high tenant refusal across our social housing decal fund projects,
as high as 26%, and this is due to a number of reasons, including resident health, vulnerability,
mental and physical challenges, the practicalities of families having to
decant from their home while surveys and works are undertaken. So the the enabling
fund will provide additional capacity in both of those two key areas. We really
need to provide additional support in order that we have resident liaison
officers on the ground visible working with our residents in order that we can
really understand the areas that they need support and we can undertake a
comprehensive program of survey work to ensure that that data around stock condition is right up to date and relevant and
in addition
we will now be using some of the enabling fund to
part meet the gap in funding that we haven't secured through the way three funding and so the request for both of those activities to
accept receipt of the way three funding when a formal
um, announcement comes through and to secure the mayoral social housing enabling fund will be going towards the combined authority meeting on the third of April in order that we can secure approval for both of those funding packages in order that we can commence activity on the warm homes way through program with our partners and as we intended to do so.
Just moving on some of the areas of activity, the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership Scheme, delivering solar panels and battery installations to 1 ,500 social homes across West Yorkshire by March 26 is progressing.
The procurement for the installers has now concluded and we have received the Modern Slavery Act compliance data that is required.
So the grant funding rooms haven't yet been signed as we have had a couple of slight delays in that, but we are on track to commence activity at the very end of this month and that will run until March 2026.
Just coming on to the one -stop shop that's noted there, we have made some significant progress across that piece of work and we have now concluded a number of activities in terms of procurement.
We have appointed a marketing partner and a digital web platform partner.
We are in the final stages of procuring the managing agents and we will be able to make an announcement on that in the coming weeks.
And we've been able to clarify some key dates where we will have a micro -site launched in late May, which will be predominantly a library of information.
We'll start to gain some interest and traction with the full service and the minimal viable product launched
in late summer
2025 so that activity continues at pace and is a significant milestone for the program that we are working towards achieving
Just a couple of other key updates for you the residential collective buying scheme
Again, the data there has moved on since the drafting of this report
It's a live scheme and we're seeing some really interesting data coming through there. So as of the 20th of March
installations have now reached
326 with a further 205 booked in so that has seen a considerable scaled up
approach to
installations of solar panels across West Yorkshire
And there's some really positive data coming through there in terms of the private sector investment
leveraged into the scheme against the combined authorities initial investment
and so that that scheme is continuing at pace and has seen some really positive
information coming through the customer experience with the scheme receiving a net promoter score of 93 out of a hundred.
Just a final couple of points just to keep you up to date the home energy loan product is still live
and that is producing some really valuable data
around people's connection to and engagement with and so the pot as you know is 1 .5 million and
That is delivering loans between five thousand and twenty five thousand pounds
to apply for retrofit measures to people's homes
to date
We have had 117 applications with 67 in progress
And 26 of those have now drowned draw down the funds
We've noted in there the report that we have had 47
applications being declined
but they are for a variety of reasons due to applicants cancelling their appointments or being able to proceed at the time and that
percentage rate is in line with with market rates in terms of
loans not going forward. So to date the loan pot has allocated just over 147 thousand pounds
with a further
for 530 in progress with the loans that are being undertaken.
And finally for me, just to update you on where we are
with our evaluation across a number of schemes,
and I know it's been discussed at previous meetings,
STEERS ED have been independently appointed
to undertake some evaluation works
on a number of our live and now concluded projects.
I received the final reports
for the Social Housing Decarbed Fund Wave 2 .1,
and the local energy advice demonstrator projects this week.
So we can bring back learnings and reflections from these at future meetings
as I know there's been a request from members to do so.
I'm more than happy to provide those at the appropriate time.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:51:18
Jessica, thank you for a huge amount of information you've just imparted.
I think you need to take a breath. Thank you.
It's really nice because I think nine months ago you came to this committee
with the one -stop shop idea
and it's just brilliant that we've seen so much progress. I think it's really
interesting how some schemes are really taken off and these are a bit
slower. I think I've got two questions if I may. One is about the
absence of the technical surveys and the tenants refusal. Do you think if we do
more of the technical surveys there may be opportunities to retrofit while
residents are still within their homes because obviously that is obviously one
of the biggest issues and then the second question is about the home energy
loans and do we really understand why the average loan request was 9 ,000 and
we thought it was going to probably be 16? Are people making a cheaper choice on
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:52:20
retrofit? So there were the two questions before I can open the floor. Yeah thank you chair. So
absolutely we very much hope having that much better understanding through the
technical surveys as to the quality and need of homes in terms of retrofit. We
are also testing through our area -based scheme some innovative approaches to
retrofit measures which does allow tenants to remain in occupation and in
their homes during those works being undertaken which is very much something
that we want to endorse and see rolled out further. And it could be that where
assumptions have been made a property's in a better condition than envisaged
which does allow tenants to remain in their homes.
I think what we also need to reflect
is that we need to have that clear communication
of conversation with tenants
to exactly what the process will be
so that they can have a clear understanding,
step by step, of how this process will work.
And if they are required to vacate their property,
it will be at a time that we commit to
and they're planned and included in that conversation
where they will go in between,
how long they will be out for.
So there's a real understanding. So we're managing their apprehension and their nervousness so that they are more included and then prepared to be involved
Yeah, and just coming on to the point of the loans apologies your second point
The expert the understanding of the
Value of the loans was very much based on modeling data and what we expected residents to go for
There is a real broad spread actually of of loan values
In that we have had some very high values, but they're limited in number the majority are coming through around that five to six
Thousand value so it's new windows insulation and some solar panels
We are seeing a direct correlation currently on our loan profiles with the residential collective buying scheme
So that does have a big impact on that
But the plus side is with the lower values we can get more loans than generated through that pot
So we're hoping that we see more households coming through in undertaking retrofit measures onto their homes with the available pot that we have at
the moment
Any questions Martin
Thanks, I just wanted to add a little bit to what just said about the way three
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:54:35
Martyn Broadest, Advisory Representative (West Yorks Housing Partnership) - 0:54:38
bid obviously, there's the just referred to the
The bid that's been led by the combined authority with ten partners of which connect my employers one
and we're very appreciative of the role that WICA has played in that and the support that they've offered.
But not all partners, not all housing providers in West Yorkshire have bid through the WICA consortium.
And although I don't have precise figures because the geographies of other partners,
other housing providers in West Yorkshire go beyond the West Yorkshire boundaries,
I would estimate that you're probably getting on almost double the amount of funding that WICA's got,
25 million.
You'd probably get to double that figure
if you accounted for all the funding
that all the providers in West Yorkshire
are going to be investing.
And then double it again, because we're
co -funding on top of the DES DES money.
So the YCL program is a large chunk of the story,
but it's not the whole story.
And across West Yorkshire, we're probably
looking at double those figures.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:55:40
Very encouraging.
Any other questions for Jessica?
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:55:47
So, could I just come back on a quick point that Richard made and apologies Richard admitted to note it during my update and that was around your very well made point around the private sector role.
The public sector purse cannot afford to deliver domestic retrofit on its own.
So, off the learnings that we've got from the loan, we are having conversations now
with private finance sector around their role, the responsibility, how they promote other
products that offer residents choice.
Our loan is just one, and how do we build on the really informative data that we've
collected from our loan to encourage the private sector to be involved and play their part.
Excellent.
Thank you for that.
Really useful.
So, thank you.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:56:34
That was a really comprehensive report. But Jessica you need to take a breath because you're on again.
We're going to talk about the reform to the energy performance of building regime.
We might actually pick up a few of the questions that were asked earlier actually. Thank you.
Yes, thank you again chair.

8 Reform to the Energy Performance of Buildings Regime

Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:56:48
So yes, this next paper is looking at the response that we have submitted to the reform of energy performance of buildings regime.
So we're asking committee to note the contents of our response which is attached to this paper.
So just a very quick overview in December 24 the UK government published a consultation on reforms to the energy
performance of buildings regimes with proposals covering England and Wales and we did
collaborate with partners and colleagues to prepare a comprehensive response that is attached here. So the
The information was looking at clarifying and consolidating regulations, updating EPC metrics,
improving data management, and revising air conditioning inspection reports amongst others.
We particularly looked at a domestic perspective from a home energy West Yorkshire,
but we did make comments on broader aspects where relevant.
So in particular, we looked at the proposed changes involved in the introduction of multiple metrics on EPCs.
The approach to EPCs have been criticised in particular.
They are looking to incentivise the previous EPCs,
do incentivise the continued use of gas boilers over low carbon options.
So we do welcome these changes that are coming through.
And the proposed changes are noted there under four key areas,
looking at fabric performance, heating system, smart readiness and energy cost.
And there's a number of other areas coming forward around reducing the validity period of EPCs
It's the point that Andrew made earlier around capturing recent and regular upgrades and improvements. We very much captured in our response
It's not entirely clear if the tool that would be used for updating
EPCs we've made a comment if that can be an online system. That's live it allows residents to go in and
and note where they've made improvements and changes to their homes.
So it's a really up to date live document.
But the proposal is that they will reduce the validity period from the current 10 years to somewhere between two and seven.
So that is, you know, an improvement there. There will also be a requirement for homeowners to have a valid EPC before they market their property for sale or rent,
which removes the current 28 day grace period.
and there is additional requirements for landlords including EPCs for tenancies
when one existing one expires and also now including short -term rental and
individual rooms in houses of multiple occupation. So we have provided commentary
and generally very supportive of the proposals put forward by the government
for the reform. We note that members of the committee have previously raised
challenges around the EPC in the current form and the goal of decarbonizing housing in the region.
And those views have been taken into account while developing our response.
So it does provide a deeper level of understanding and consideration of the Energy Performance Certificate.
However, we have noted that there will be an increased cost to residents in terms of having to redo EPCs on a more regular basis.
So the as I've said the the submission that has now been formally provided is attached to your papers here
But it's a comprehensive paper. So I don't tend to to go through each question here giving the broad overview
Thanks, Jessica any questions or any further comments
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:00:27
Thank you, and it's I guess it's just more of a comment rather than a question
Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council - 1:00:33
but it plays into what you were talking about.
So there's a thing here, isn't there,
about whether homeowners should be encouraged
to upgrade their EPC after they've commissioned
any sort of extensive retrofit
within their homes and properties.
And that, I guess, will enable some of the data
within the public EPC register to help play
into our 2038 target.
I think without that, we're flying blind, aren't we really?
And there's just gonna be little or no tracking.
Luckily, our energy plans will probably help
with some of that, especially with digital twin
to look at what that looks like but just just more of a commentary really on it.
Martyn Broadest, Advisory Representative (West Yorks Housing Partnership) - 1:01:10
Martin. Yeah I fully support the changes that have been proposed the current
EPC regime is not great. One of the things though that we're finding because
we have over the years taken a responsible position and try to retrofit
our properties.
This is not new to associations like Connect.
Unless we've got very robust records of what we've done
and the materials that we've used
and the performance of those materials,
it's very difficult to get the EPC assessors to take those
into account in doing new assessments.
And that means that you could have, well,
I know properties that we've retrofitted 15 years ago,
were very high standard that got A -graded EPCs at the time
that now we're struggling to get a C on because the assessors
are insisting on assuming that they're as built unless it's
proven otherwise.
So the point here is that actually record keeping
by homeowners, by property owners
is going to be a really, really critical element of maintaining
EPC records going forward and I'm not sure that's really been captured yet.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:02:32
Jessica McNeil West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 1:02:33
Yeah it's a very valid point Martin and some of the challenges we've had is what
will be the skill of the EPC assessor to reflect some of that? Would it still be a
broader but still a tickboxing exercise so there isn't the ability to make
narrative around some of the quality of works undertaken as you said the
materials used and the skill and application of some of the retrofit measures to really
Influence and
Evaluate works have been undertaken. So it's it's a progress and it's a positive progress nonetheless, but I still think there's some work to do there
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:03:07
Thanks. I think the conversation's been great
I'm just reflecting to earlier on to Andrews comment and Councillor does comment on trying to get building standards up
I think it all links in and you know, hopefully
hopefully the consultation will be listened to and heard. Thanks Jessica.
Excellent. Andrew. Just a sort of reflective thought on different
ways you can harvest data. So things change a lot so we know that people
upgrade their homes and they make interventions. What doesn't really change
is their billing. Really what they're getting billed each month in
in terms of kilowatt hours, gas and electric,
shouldn't change unless something has changed.
But some of that's changed by behavior.
And I said, you know, COVID will have seen more homeworking,
which will have bumped things up.
But eventually we'll end up at a float point.
So I wonder if there's information in the billing data
as well for gas and electric
and how that's changed over time.
And obviously, if somebody's made a big retrofit,
you'd expect to see a reduction down
if everything else was normal.
Andrew Thomson Advisory Representative (Yorkshire Water) - 1:04:14
But of course, we've got new normal now.
So we need to find ways to filter that information
that we've got and provide, I guess,
a useful lens on what efficient homes look like
in kilowatt -ounce per square meter or per square foot
as best is dictated.
And actually that leads back to some of Guy's information
on the KPIs that we looked at.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:04:37
So yeah, it's all linked.
Richard.
Yeah, just to say on that point,
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:04:42
I've got a client who's a heat pump manufacturer,
won't be the only one but it's just an interesting observation because they've realized if they
have the data of how the heat pump is working they can start sending software to make it most
efficient in the household. I'm not selling like a mini, there's no point but that they I've also
realized of course there's a voluntary carbon credit offset market which generally only exists
at an industrial, pan -industrial level.
But things start garnering data from domestic cases
or social housing providers, for example.
And people are willing to pay for that.
You suddenly created something that's got value.
But the data's got to be right in the first place.
And their way of doing it isn't paper and records.
It's to actually get an app, basically.
So there's a, I don't know what we do as a committee,
but that as a domestic fit, as a domestic point moving forward,
that technology side strikes me as quite important because it could unlock some real value for
the domestic market especially. So if householders here can get some money off by allowing someone
who can aggregate these things into one, then people will start to go for that because that's
cheaper than it was before, right? But a domestic household will never be able to trade with
British Airways as an offset, that's not going to work, you need to somehow aggregate it
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:06:12
Yeah interesting, thank you for that. Okay any more questions or shall we give you a
break Jessica and move over to Noel. Noel, West Yorkshire Climate and Environmental Fund,

9 West Yorkshire Climate and Environment Fund

do you want to give us a bit of an overview? Thank you chair, so I won't go through the
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:06:26
papers as usual, I'll take the majority of it as read but I guess the purpose of bringing
that paper to you today it really is to get your input as a committee into the
emerging objectives, the outcomes and the benefits of a potential West Yorkshire
climate fund. So what the paper really does is tries to set the context and the
narrative and rationale for why we want to introduce the fund. So just touching
briefly on that I think you're all very much aware the fact that we've got
local area energy plans either having been completed or being taken
Taking place within and the other four local authorities within West Yorkshire
So by the end of this year, we should have a suite of local area energy plans for the entire
entirety of West Yorkshire
What that should give us is a pipeline of net zero related projects
Everything from heat pumps through to heat networks through to solar panels and the like so you we should have a much more comprehensive
understanding of what the pipeline looks like and needs to be kind of
kind of brought forward as we
kind of move towards that net zero target by 2038. So it really kind of
demonstrates that we've got this pipeline or will have this pipeline but
it's the what next how do we fund that how do we de -risk projects how do we
really kind of make sure that we can see that scale and the pace of deployment of
net zero interventions that we've not seen so far really really happen and so
So it talks about the rationale behind it, talks about the barriers that we're trying
to overcome with the fund as well.
We talk about what others have done before us as well.
We're not unique in thinking about this agenda item, this kind of fund to unlock investment
in net zero.
So the real prominent example as you'll see from the papers around the GLA and the work
that they've done over a number of years to try and develop funds and seek investment.
and so there's a lot of learning out there.
And then it launches into kind of what the objectives,
outcomes and benefits of that,
and it'd be really great to have your kind of initial
input into that because they are a work in progress
at this moment in time.
And then something that isn't in the paper
but came to light since it's been written
is at the back end of February,
there was a paper that went to the command authority
to establish a non -transport capital fund
that was established at 250 million pounds of which 40 million is allocated
to a West Yorkshire climate fund so it gives us a starting point to be able to
establish that fund but also to leverage private sector funding to really make a
difference in terms of the deployment of those types of schemes. So that's
probably all I wanted to say on that chair so I'll hand back to you but I'm
happy to take questions and feedback on the paper. Thank you Noel. Open the floor
questions.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:09:29
Consultation. Thank you yeah and it's a really good piece of work. I guess
Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council - 1:09:32
the trick with this is and I'm thinking about the context of where we are in
West Yorkshire and a lot of it is semi -rural, rural villages, towns
classically this level of investment will be focused at urban centres and cities.
I wonder if we're missing a trick or whether there's an opportunity here for us to think about
how we celebrate much of our place and think about if we can do some pilot work thinking about how that
transition can be extrapolated on those kind of places that typically don't see that level of investment.
So one of the things we're trying to do with the fund is
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:10:12
you know we're technology agnostic I suppose in terms of you know it won't be
one particular technology that dominates the reality of it is that the fund will
probably have different streams for different technologies and different
asset classes and therefore but we aren't kind of trying to focus that in
on kind of the urban centers or anything like that it will be very much taking
that broad approach that we've taken with the local area energy plan to see
what the pipeline looks like and aggregate up so we do have scale so
within that pipeline of say solar projects that might come to market we
may find that there is the solar programs that might be in rural areas
or in kind of our towns and cities so we don't envisage that it we're just trying
to concentrate in one area obviously we're going to be determined by the
local area energy plan to a certain extent but the intention is to try and
that breadth of activity and hopefully kind of combine some of the ones that
might be more commercially attractive with some that might not be as part of
that program so we can we can kind of balance out the the risks and also the
funding that is needed with attractive ones and maybe less attractive ones as
Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council - 1:11:22
part of that portfolio. Yeah just briefly and sorry to come back I guess
obviously Colindale did the lead pilot work on the LEAP and I've already had
loads of people knocking at our doors, including people like Lucalis who wanted to do a round
table and it was just interesting. I guess just in those early discussions it's become
quite apparent that they're still in that quiet mindset of the urban setting, so I wonder,
and you're quite right, and I know this is about providing projects for everywhere, but
I wonder if some of that local community and engagement stuff around specifically where
there might already be ideas around community energy production or small scale wind turbines
some of that local community engagement is going to be absolutely key in getting this
right so it feels equitable for all our communities.
Richard.
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:12:10
I think, again, as you know, I'm pretty supportive of this as well, Noel, but it might not be
clear yet at the moment, it might be the schemes being developed.
This isn't all going to be grant funding.
I'm just not entirely clear, is this sort of debt and equity or is it funding or do
we not know at the minute?
Okay, and if we don't know, that's fine.
Then I'll leave a challenge, which is if it's not grant funding, it'll be interesting to
see how we differentiate ourselves in giving the money out because there isn't a lack of
investment money in net zero.
so there has to be something distinct about this money or the method of how we employ
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:13:01
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:13:02
it for it to be relevant. Yes, we either take more risk as a region or some of it's grant
funding for example or maybe that's the wrong terminology but if it's good, because otherwise
the National Wealth Fund here are helping you, well just how the hell is the problem
they've got? It's not like they aren't high profile but they struggle to get their money
out the door at the map.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:13:17
And just for me to add to that is, do we have a good understanding of how we're going to
assess these projects?
Because I hear what you're saying.
We've got lots of different pots.
And as Councillor Paterson said, there are some areas, and actually you alluded to, Noel,
quite often overlooked.
So particularly for this kind of funding, do we have good criteria?
Do we know what success at the end of the 40 million spend looks like?
because I feel like it's very new at the moment
and we haven't got that information.
It is very new and we are very much at the beginning
of a journey in terms of shaping the fund
in the vision or the image that we want as a region
so we are, it's a brilliant time to be feeding
in these types of points because we are at the start
of that process so we can start to try and design
with these considerations in mind.
So, just to respond to Richard's point around not grant funding, so we haven't made a decision
in terms of whether it is grant, whether it is something else. We're working, as you know,
with National Wealth Fund to work out what does that look like. We do want our money
to work as hard as possible, I suppose is worth just saying, and whether that then leads
away from grant funding or not you know we need to we need to work that through
and consider it but that is a consideration that we need to think
about in terms of making our money work harder but absolutely we're in the
purse where maybe we do take more risk on projects as well because others aren't
and we have to fill a gap you know market failures are kind of some of the
stuff that we're here for as a combined authority to kind of look at.
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:15:13
Okay thank you Martin. An observation, the focus of the fund appears to be on
zero carbon and renewable energy sources but the title is climate and
environment and that might imply that a broader range of investments can be
provided particularly around adaptation resilience or nature recovery so I just
if there's a mismatch there between what it says on the tin and what it's for.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:15:42
It's, I wouldn't say that we're intending it to be a mismatch and just to be focused on kind of
net zero and renewable energy sources maybe we need to kind of just rejig things a little bit
but the absolute starting point for this is to try and fund as much of that as we kind of can so
but it's anywhere from new renewable energy kind of projects
all the way through to nature recovery kind of projects
and everything in between really should be.
If we can try and fund that,
and this is why I was kind of trying to make the point
around yes, it'll probably be one banner for a climate fund,
but there will be different funding streams
depending on what the investors are that are interested
in particular asset classes.
So I can't imagine that somebody's interested in solar
wants to also invest in nature recovery
because of the risk profiles that might be associated with those it just might
be too much of a risk for them to even get involved if we have that but I can
certainly see strands within the fund which talk to different elements of that
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:16:48
net climate and the environment kind of agenda. Okay but my observation is the
papers very heavily weighted towards zero carbon net zero as opposed to the other strands.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:16:57
We'll take that feedback and have a look.
Councillor Dye.
Thank you.
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:17:03
I've just come in on the previous point about ensuring that it's kind of fairly spread across
Cllr Katie Dye (Leeds City Council) - 1:17:13
all the different regions and the mention of more rural areas and you talked, Noel,
at the beginning about looking at learning from the GLA.
So is there learning to be had from other areas that are perhaps more representative
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:17:25
of ours? There absolutely is. There's one in the west of England so they've just
announced and just launched their fund over in the west of England so very new
but absolutely we are looking to learn from other people in terms of what
they've done how they've done it so that we do get a more balanced picture of
obviously GLA is quite obviously a specific case and there are others so
but yeah, absolutely are.
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:17:53
Thanks.
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:17:55
Any other questions?
Any other questions?
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:17:58
Can I just touch on a part?
Yeah, just to put, you talked about how do we know what good is and what good criteria around this is.
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:18:05
So, some of the information we've kind of had from an advice from National Wealth Fund around that is
good governance and decision making needs to be set up around this so that decisions can be made
and there is a clear way of doing that, so we'll be looking at investigating options for what that might look like as well.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, we're now going to move from energy and net zero over to Justin,
and Justin you're going to give us an update on the local nature recovery strategy.

10 Update on the Local Nature Recovery Strategy

Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:18:34
Washington Board for appropriation million doublepping the
staff I would like to add is
So I will guide you through the pack.
So in the agenda pack, we have the slides from page 169 of this.
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:19:23
So if you turn to that part of the pack and I'll just guide you through the slides as
I talk through them.
Sorry about that technical hitch.
So in terms of the second slide, it's just obviously the outline of what it will cover.
I think in essence this is just a bit of a touch point on the LNRS.
As I've mentioned before, we've had previous updates to this committee and also it's a new process.
We're very conscious as a team to take committee members along with us as we develop the strategy on an iterative basis.
Alison Gillespie, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:19:53
So if we go on to the next slide, which is the process and methodology.
So I think again when we came last time we noticed that step one in the
methodology mapping of existing areas of importance has been completed and we're
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:20:13
now in the thick of stages three, four and five of the methodology. That is
looking at areas that could become important in the future and also looking
at particular areas where there are opportunities to map ecological areas of
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:20:27
importance as well. So we're getting to a good point now and I'll come to the
timescales in a little bit later in the presentation but there's a quite
significant volume of work now taking shape and again that's the real
rationale for coming forward and to the committee at this point. So if we go on to the
next stage which just recap some of our engagement work. Again previously we
talked about some of the work we've done with business and the farming community,
community groups and also a public survey which had a really good response.
We're now moving on into the last stage of our kind of pre -consultation draft
engagement with a further study. So if you go on to the next slant, I think it's
ROS engagement 2. So we're now focusing on where the gaps in our engagement
to date has been and we've identified a particular kind of subset of
marginalized groups, particularly kind of young people, so sub 24, some ethnic
minority groups and also people in areas of challenging areas or deprivation with
poor access to nature and also those with long -term health and conditions or
disabilities. And so there's a further piece of work going on at the moment with again
specialist consultants that are kind of very experienced in this area and that's
working through at the moment and hopefully that will give us the
opportunity to test some of the emerging priorities and measures, the
building blocks of the strategy with these groups as well to make sure that
the strategy we're developing is actually workable for them and they
understand it. And the last piece of engagement which we're just in the
scoping stage for at the moment is looking at ways to engage children and
so again that was another gap so there we're looking for the nine to fifteen
year olds bracket and that's in line with the client authorities
child first framework and we're looking at deploying some of that methodology to
engage with that particular cohort in a bit more detail.
And I think that's partly bounded from the fact that
I think there's a lot of research out there
in terms of the connectivity with nature,
with the young people, and particularly kind of
the very young, kind of one, two, toddler age, up to nine.
They are quite well connected to nature,
they understand it, they enjoy it, and they appreciate it.
And there is something called like a teenage drop off
from nine onwards to 15, and it sounds quite sad,
where they lose that connectivity,
whether that's technology or other priorities or what have you.
So we can do a bit of research into where that lies in West Yorkshire
and how we can try and reconnect that demographic with our work.
So again, it's in the Scoping stage at the moment,
but we're open to keep that up in the next few weeks
as a final piece of pre -engagement work.
So I'll just counter on.
So just going on to the emerging strategy.
So if you move through the slide deck.
So on, so we've got a slide there,
just looking at the draft vision and missions again we've touched on this
before with the committee slightly refined and
now we've added a bit more detail on the missions and what they
aim to achieve so that's the wildlife and habitats mission
ecosystem services and people so again if we just move on to the next
slide we'll we'll talk about those in a bit more detail and introduce the
themes or the building blocks for each within each of those missions
and so just go to go through them a little bit of detail mission one
wildlife and habitats. As the name suggests that's focused on the habitats that need to be created
restored in West Yorkshire and these are the main habitat types we've got in West Yorkshire. So we
really pulled these to the fore and they'll be the centrepiece of what we're trying to achieve
under that mission. Mission two is ecosystem services and so that focuses on the natural
systems that underpin the biodiversity, so you know such as carbon capture, soil health, clean air
and also water management is one of the most significant ecosystem services in
West Yorkshire so we've seen that as very much a golden thread and again a
centerpiece to what we're trying to achieve here and then thirdly and people
so building on the point I made earlier about young people and trying to enhance
that connectedness to nature and I think we do see that as an almost a cyclical
benefit where you increase people's connectedness to nature and then they
better decisions or more informed choices about how they respond to and interact with nature as well
and equally in terms of wider sustainability and climate change as well. So we've seen that as a
key strand and also looking at some of the communities both in terms of the people we need
to engage with but also potentially delivery partners in terms of community level biodiversity
improvements and also culture and nature. Again we've got a lot of cultural landscapes in West
Yorkshire and we're trying to capitalise those on it in terms of the golden thread within the document.
So just moving on. So this is the new territory we're going into now.
So priorities and measures. I think I introduced this concept when we last met,
but in summary, the priorities are the key actions that are for recovering and enhancing biodiversity.
They establish what the strategy is trying to achieve, in essence. And then within each priority,
we have a series of measures and they're the practical actions of what we need to do.
So in there we've got a bit of an example where they could be focused on particular activities
that need to happen. To give you a bit of a feel for the size of the document, our emerging strategy
at the minute includes about 25 priorities and then within that we've got a series of measures
beneath it. So we've got around 70 that we think are going to be mappable on the Hamtack map and
then over probably around a hundred things that will be other activities
that we can do locally but won't be present on the map, they aren't specially
specific and then a range of other supporting measures and I'll just
touch on these in the next few slides. They are in the packs, I won't dwell on them,
but it's a couple of works examples just to bring it to life. So we've got a built
environment example there looking at high quality accessible nature in towns
and cities and then also an upland nature -friendly farming example and a water example as well.
So actually I won't go through the details of the word in those but that should just
give you a bit of a feel of how the strategy would work.
And then in terms of the map on the developing the local habitat map slide, it's a bit of
an infographic type thing there.
I think it's fair to say it is a complex process developing the mapping.
I mentioned before, these kind of just under 100 things that we want to map on the habitat
map and it's quite a sensitive process.
So what we have done is devised quite a network of consultants and specialists and stakeholders
to work with their landowners, experts in the field or delivery partners and they're
actively working on the methodology or what we call the recipe for each of these mapped
measures.
and going through a process now of developing that methodology, working on that with our
research intelligence team, grafting the map and then playing that back to stakeholders
to make sure it's right. So there's a lot of iterative work going on there and that's
what we're very much in the thick of at the moment.
And then the next slide just shows you a very, it probably doesn't come out particularly
well in the pack, just an example of what we've mapped in terms of that stage one, which
is the existing areas of biodiversity importance.
And then if you just go on to the next slide that just gives you a bit of a
feel for the emerging structure of the LNRS. Again it's quite small typeface
there but hopefully you can read that in the pack. And essentially I think there's
a written element of the LNRS which committee members will see kind of
informally in the next few weeks and months and then also the habitat map.
But what we're trying to do is make the the main document quite snappy and quite
legible because there's a lot of information there and then there'll be kind of a more
of a broader family of documents with annexes and supporting documents which people can use
whether that's as a developer or a farmer or landowner or a community group to pick up and
be able to use in a day -to -day basis because obviously it is a statutory document so it has
got a set format to it but we've tried to make it in a way that it is usable. Good and then just on
the last few slides. So just on the time scales and the thing to note is unfortunately
the time scales have slipped and I think in essence because of the scale of the
mapping I think it's been the thing that's really come to the fore for us.
We have put measures in place to kind of do that at pace. We've got a dedicated
GIS mapping officer in the team that's working on that flat out as
that's all work really but still it's taken a lot of time. That iterative process of
refining is taking a bit longer as well and also we're kind of middle of the
pack and across the other 48 in total LRS areas. Some of them are
published already and we're taking the learning from that and equally some of
the mistakes that they've essentially made or pitfalls they've kind of fallen
into and so we're building in a bit more of a robust process to make sure that
what we get at the end of the process is robust and we can stand its kind of test
of time really. I think as I mentioned before and government have been quite
flexible in terms of when we would review the LNRS but indicative of this
between three and ten years so it has got to be something we get right we
can't really rush this unnecessarily. So broadly we're thinking of
public consultation in October November this year and then the publication of
the final version in spring 26. I think the thing to note is in terms of
kind of decision -making and directing biodiversity improvements. Once we
consult on the document it will carry some weight in that process,
whether it's in terms of planning as well, and so we can at that point start
to direct biodiversity improvements into the areas that as a partnership we
think have got most weight and priority. So if I just give you these last five
slides, just in terms of the delivery and how it will be used, again I've touched on this
a few times previously but I think it's got a range of uses and again that's
part of the reason why we've developed that bit of a framework or a family of
documents decades for those different markets but I think in essence we're
talking about it being a criteria for future government funding decisions so
it will guide investment also kind of corporate investments that people might
want to make in kind of environmental improvements or nature recovery and also
supporting communities to do activities in their area whether it's something
that's kind of formally mapped or something that we've just suggested that could happen
and offer some benefits in local areas and also it could guide investments in future
nature and carbon markets as well, particularly with my peat restoration there.
And then just moving on to the last couple of slides. So monitoring, I'll just take that
as read, it's just some information there. I have raised some discussion points in the
slide deck, but obviously kind of welcome to open to the floor, but I think what we
want to kind of touch base on and just sense check with you at this point is from the engagement
point of view, do you think we've done enough of anything that's other than the gaps that
I've identified there that we need to do more on? And then in terms of the vision, mission
and priorities, I do still think they're going in the right direction and the framework for
the LNRS in the right way. And then delivery is just I think the thing that we're not worried
about but just making sure that it's something that people can kind of pick
up and use whether that's from a developer in London or the point of view
or communities so if there are any thoughts you had on the ways we can
kind of galvanize that delivery and that would be welcome as well but obviously
general questions are also appreciated. Thank you Jack. Thanks Justin. I think if it's okay I'm just gonna
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:32:15
kind of start I mean I see this a bit like the climate and environmental plan
once we get this right, it could be overarching with things hanging off.
So some of the questions that I've got may be parked, but you know,
how does this link to the biodiversity net gain stuff, which we'll talk about next?
How, you know,
how about businesses and planning and how can they get involved?
Link this to the local natural green space KPI that we talked about earlier.
But but actually, you're right about spending time getting it right up front.
But my other worry is once it's launched, how do we keep it live?
Do we make sure there's enough funding to keep it going because it will be a brilliant piece of work
But it could be outdated pretty quick as more and more work is done
So I think just thinking about that whole business model beyond the publication just in is going to be really quite important
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:33:16
Thank you. I've just come back on those points. I think in terms of the linkages with BNG,
we have, as we've been working through the priorities, the measures and equally the mapped
elements which we're getting to now, we've got that kind of semi at the forefront of
our mind. I think the thing to emphasise with BNG, it's a government tool that's out there
at the moment and we're very conscious that those things can come and go quite quickly
sometimes. So I think we have as a team been quite mindful of just being true to the purpose
of the IRS and to the nature recovery and those tools could interplay and change in the background.
I think as it's currently geared up, the main interface with BNG is the mapped elements which
I mentioned again which is why we're laboring to get those right. They do attract a kind of
positive weighting. So essentially it's broadly kind of cheaper for somebody to
plant a tree in an area which is LRS compliant, i .e. mapped versus somewhere
that isn't. But it is an open market so again it's around that wider system of
putting the LRS out there, making it legible, make it understandable, make sure
people are aware of it as much as anything else. So we are mindful of that
but then equally there are other things out there like ELMS, the environmental
land management and support that's provided to farmers and that we also need to be mindful of
and cater for. So the only thing that government has been clear on in this in terms of delivery
phase today is that it will be used as kind of a direction tool for future funding bids as well.
So again that flexibility is key. In terms of business involvement, we did quite a good round
of business engagement particularly through UK Reef. We had a roundtable event with some
investors and developers, et cetera.
We're looking to bake some more into that engagement phase
when we got to public consultation.
So we're mapping that out at the moment.
And then also within that family of documents,
we're probably going to be having
some kind of business developer user guide.
Again, we should talk to that audience particularly
and then equally kind of scamping around a little bit,
but Defra have intimated that the commander
throughout his role in this process,
which is currently is a responsible authority
and their potential of extending that into a delivery role.
We're not convinced that it's gonna come
with any particular cash to put space in the ground
and do direct delivery, but he's convening partners,
pulling pipelines together, and also looking at
the kind of managing the funding cocktail
that might go into some of these sites.
So again, engagement with the business community
through that process will be key. It's just a bit unfortunate that we get into this kind of late
stage in the process and haven't really got clarity on what they've got in store for us just yet,
but that the business schedule will be key to that part and then keeping it alive and
interestingly we'll be getting outdated and that is difficult because it is set in stone once it's
completed. I think we need to work through again that kind of delivery role and how we
pull those partners together.
There could be some kind of forum or panel
that we put to convene, and that might be how we kind of
incrementally kind of build that partnership
and make sure it's alive in people's mind
as a key strategy for the region really.
Thanks broadly.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:36:31
Thanks, Jeff.
Andrew, you had your hand up.
Thanks, Jack.
It's really interesting.
It's a really interesting paper, very comprehensive.
I mean, I can see Walter as a golden thread,
and from where I'm sitting, that's a very key piece
of the jigsaw puzzle.
Andrew Thomson Advisory Representative (Yorkshire Water) - 1:36:49
Lots of interconnectivity, and I'm
interested in how it interplays with the last gender item
as well in terms of when you've done
all the mapping of priority areas and areas for action,
done all your geospatial mapping, et cetera,
and you start to come and identify
areas for intervention.
That's when potential for tapping
into pots in potential funds comes in, no doubt.
I think the need for clear outcome -driven KPIs
is really key.
and I would support that chair in terms of the comment you've made.
And there's some other things in terms of interplay generally with the climate adaptation,
climate net zero journey, is that so much of the nature resilience as a, you know, ecosystems
as a service sort of suggests that you can do a lot of things.
But if we don't tie those threads together in terms of the ecosystem benefit, in terms
of flood alleviation, in terms of avoiding damage to properties, which would undo all
of the interventions we have in, let's say retrofitting them, etc.
If properties get flooded out or they get damaged through storms, it's going to undo it.
So the ecosystem services piece of this has tremendous value, and connecting that value
to the net zero pathway and journey I think is quite important.
As you said, this will end up as a document which is a sort of an evergreen document.
It's not going to have a life beyond it being articulated.
But I think it has to sort of find its way into the other strategies and the other threads
to give them a life and to continue the legacy.
So it's how you feed it into the other pieces I think will be key to the success ultimately.
Thank you.
Yeah, so I think through that engagement process I talked about various kind of community groups
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:38:42
and external parties but also we are doing kind of a policy based engagement as well
linking in with the policing team, the housing teams etc. I'm trying to embed it
in those in those areas particularly transport and planning as well. We're trying to
make sure those links are really clear. I think in terms of the KPIs we're
starting to map those out at the moment. We've got kind of a framework in place at
this current stage and it's kind of two elements to that. There's the kind of
delivery on the ground which at the moment we're not going to be directly
responsible for but I think we potentially will have that oversight
role in that area but also the community element of things as well as
the connectedness to nature and that's something we're trying to capture now as
a baseline position and then be able to kind of just monitor and see how that
improves in the future and equally community delivery and that is a bit of
a gap in certain in some areas at the moment and that's something we can try
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:39:32
and manage and accelerate as well. Thank you. Okay thank you I'm going to move to
Councilor Dye and then Councilor, who was first,
Councilor Hemingway, then Councilor Page.
I'll go to Councilor Dye first,
you were definitely first.
Thank you.
Cllr Katie Dye (Leeds City Council) - 1:39:45
So I just wanted to pick up on a few points.
Clearly, this is a really, really important piece of work
and it's absolutely necessary.
And I was picking up on some of the things
you were saying about engagement.
So the engaging with young people,
I assume that the strategy involves schools.
Does it involve teacher networks?
Because I'm sure all of us will be aware of teacher networks
across the city who are specifically
focused on climate work.
And then something I wrote doesn't make sense.
Community groups connect communities to the strategy.
Oh, I think in your questions you
had something about how do we connect communities?
is how do we think we can get communities to value nature?
And again, there must be hundreds of community groups
across the authority who we could engage with on that.
And then my third point was about sharing the map
and using that to get people to engage.
The piece of work about getting people to put pins
in where they see nature recovery happening.
Is that something that can kind of continue and get bigger
and we can see people getting engaged
by seeing where things are happening
in their local communities?
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor.
I think in terms of school engagement,
the first piece of young people
again that we undertook was with Greenhead College
in Kirklees and that was a really good piece of work because I think it's in the
slide deck in terms of the manifesto they created. Obviously that was a
snapshot and equally quite an older kind of young person's demographic.
The next piece of work that we're looking at that kind of 9 to 14 bracket,
we are using potentially the schools networks, that is something that I
think we use for the big climate chat previously with the Mayor, so
using that experience to again use that network and the teachers in that
grouping as well and to push those messages out and equally kind of as I
mentioned before that KPI around connectedness we really want to baseline
that position locally and see where we're at as a region in terms of that
connectivity with nature from our well across all population groups
but equally the children and then see if that actually can affect any
change on that over the next few years post -LMS publication. The pin map
that you mentioned that we use for the public survey that was really good tool
we've got a really good response and we are looking at ways to kind of keep that
live and again that could be something that you could also use that to kind of
from a informal basis kind of monitor delivery as well where people are seeing
activity happen on LNRS sites for example they could drop a pin on the map
that could be a way to kind of have some live commentary or something on that so
there's some looking at it you do get really good response the interactive
map and then in terms of wider community involvement yeah thank you for those
comments and I think we have got a lot of community groups on our existing kind
of database network where we've got kind of the ability to kind of do mail -outs
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:43:04
to them that we've also got a regular newsletter and that we use and so we
also maybe we'll keep using that tool as we go through the process.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:43:15
Thanks Councillor Hemingway. Thank you chair I very much agree with
with Casa Dye's comments there.
Cllr Jack Hemingway (Wakefield Council) - 1:43:19
In terms of the planning and the sort of baseline
where we're coming from,
I know a lot of the individual schemes
will be underpinned by data and that will be linked to them.
I do wonder if we could have a sort of baseline summary
of the state of nature, not obviously the detail
that some nature charities and ecology organizations
are able to gather, but just a sort of general position
statement of this is where West Yorkshire's nature is
in these particular habitats and areas.
This is where we're going to just to set the scene really
for some of these actions,
really support the idea of a forum to engage
with some of the landowners and key groups on this
in using the weight full example.
We have huge swathes of cereal crop farmland
in the south of the weight field
and getting farmers involved in terms of
hedgerow preservation and enhancement
is gonna be absolutely critical
because we have some really good practice
and we have some really bad practice
where people are still taking hedgerows out
to facilitate farming.
So I'd be interested in how we make sure
that engagement transitions into almost a partnership
and something that's ongoing,
I'm not just part of this consultation.
So those two points really about
can we get some more baseline information of some form
as context to the plan and where we're going
and then how are we gonna make sure
that that engagement with landowners keeps going
throughout the consultation and beyond.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor.
In terms of the baseline summary,
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:44:37
that will be, I think, when we publish the consultation draft
there'll be some evidence around that
as to where we're at as a region
and equally kind of evidencing some of the decisions
we've made at that stage as well then obviously that will be transferred
into the final version once it's published and so we'll keep that up to
date as we go through from a monitoring point of view and in terms of
engagement and the partnership post publication and I mentioned before about
Defra thinking about combined authorities having a delivery role or
coordination role for LNRS post publication I'd say that as the main
tool to make that work. Obviously we'll have kind of a high level committee or
like a partnership forum but I think there could be other subgroups within
that, whether it's the business community or community groups, that we could continue
to engage and kind of coordinate with. So I think that could work really well. Thank
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:45:21
you. Excellent, thank you. And Councillor Pageant?
Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council - 1:45:26
Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to pull a little bit more of that golden thread around water
while you were in the room really. It feels like a big opportunity and I think we've got
a unique opportunity here because of the sheer amount of blanket bog and peatland that needs
restoring, obviously brilliant for ground nesting birds and stuff. I'm not going to
list them all, my favourite's the curling.
But you know, and as well as the idea of
driven grouse moors being on their way out,
as that becomes less of an appealing thing
for large landowners, but perhaps a big opportunity
for other large landowners like yourself.
We've obviously got loads of SSIs and SPAs
and SACs around here, so big opportunity
to sort of do a lot of that work there.
Really good to hear about the sort of connections
with white rose forest as well.
And I'm thinking about that interconnectivity as well
with all of our work around flood resilience and adaptation.
Sorry to be boring, I'm from a flood hit community,
so I always take the opportunity to make sure that's done.
As well as some of that urban context,
and this is looking at you as well from Yorkshire Water
and thinking about sustainable urban drainage,
anything that can help slow that water,
so ease the impacts that it has on organizations
that do have something to do with water as well.
And then I was just briefly thinking
about engagement as well.
and I do a fair bit of fell running and hiking
and I've noticed over a few years
and I'm sure other people have as well
that the people who are access,
the communities that are accessing the uplands
look a lot different than they did five, 10 years ago
from the Muslim hikers and everyone else
and some of that's about accessing it
and it's something free to do.
So if you can buy a cheap pair of boots,
you can access the uplands and it's great.
Experiences out in the real world
cost a lot of money at the moment.
So I think there are groups and opportunities for us to do some of that meaningful engagement that already exists and where we don't know
Them they will have the roots into those other opportunities to
Just in do you want to comment or shall I move straight over?
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:47:25
Okay, just is it Jason yeah
It's just an observation really and the links into business and at NGN we have volunteer
days and we can take two volunteer days each. We have a thousand employees in NGN across
the north of England and I think it would be a really good thing to tap into with businesses
and looking at volunteer companies that offer volunteer days, linking in with the nature
partners, the Wildlife Trust, the RSPB etc etc and linking that into the plan.
Yeah it's a really helpful suggestion and something that wasn't really on our
radar so that's a really yeah we'll take on board and then think about it and
build on that as we go through the engagement. Thank you. Okay thank you I'm
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:48:26
just conscious of time. Any more questions for Justin otherwise we're
to get Justin to talk about buying a diversity net gain and what we're doing about it.

11 Biodiversity Net Gain Responsible Body Service

Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:48:49
Thank you chair. Okay, buying a diversity net gain responsible body. So I've almost linked to the
previous item. I think it's important to note that this is quite a, I'd say a niche role,
but it's not biodiversity's wider sense.
So just to go back a step in terms of the issue,
biodiversity has obviously become mandatory now,
and the five districts across West Shorrock
should be kind of grappling in terms of how
to deliver that locally, but also within areas
of land they're currently owned,
so local wildlife sites or parks.
Leeds City Council have developed their own model,
special purpose vehicle, which is the proposed approach
that we're putting forward in this paper would be some alignment with the
approach for the other four districts and mainly there is about creating a
streamlined and user friendly service for the development sector in this area.
In terms of the responsible body role, as I mentioned before, there's a conflict
where a local planning authority has two hats essentially in the BNG process
where they're a planning authority and they're an owner of land. In that
scenario, DEFRA through legislation requires them to have a responsible body in place or
some mechanism to remove that conflict.
So they approached the combined authority and asked us to kind of investigate for them.
And essentially a responsible body, kind of what it does is outlined at paragraph 3 .4
of the report.
So essentially it sets up a contract between the responsible body, us, and the landowner
which is the local authority to govern the restoration of a particular site, a
Habitat Bank site. It then registers that Habitat Bank site with the contract in
place which is what we call a conservation covenant with Defra and
then it ensures the landowner which again is the local authority carries out
these various kind of ecological improvements on the site through
monitoring arrangements or site visits by a trained ecologist and then we over a
it's kind of managed appropriately and then submit annual returns to Defra.
And then finally, which hopefully we'll hopefully never get to this point,
the responsible body role carries with it enforcement powers in the
kind of unlikely scenario where a landowner had carried out some ecological
works to a standard that wasn't suitable or potentially the habitat had
died of for some kind of reason.
So when the four local authorities,
so that's kind of called the Little Bradford, Coakley's,
and Wakefield, first approaches went
through a range of options.
And they're summarized at paragraph 310.
I think the, in essence, I think what we arrived at,
that the CA becoming responsible body had most alignment from a strategic point of view.
So it lined up delivery potentially with what we were trying to achieve through the ILS
and thereby ensuring the BNG was targeted in areas that had most impact and accelerated
delivery. Also, it provided a simplified process for developers across West Yorkshire. So noting
that it's a separate process in Leeds and then we could end up under some options with
the fragmented approach across the other four.
And so we could have different geographies
doing different approaches across each district,
which isn't easy for people to navigate.
And also we concluded that the CA becoming responsible
but it was quite deliverable in the short term.
I think it has taken a lot of work to get it to this point,
but we're hopeful to be operational
and accepting kind of habitat bank unit sales
this summer in effect.
And with that, that gives us the benefit
that have been able to potentially kind of unlock any,
or reduce any impacts on the development sector
in terms of stalling development,
and which can be a risk if you can't discharge
or find a way to offset your biodiversity losses on site.
So in terms of time scales, what's happened so far
is that we've developed an application to Defra
that was submitted on the 10th of February.
They have up to 12 weeks to consider the application,
and then alongside that work we've also done some kind of resource mapping and
engagement with the private sector and ecological businesses to look out how we
could deliver the service. The plan now is to potentially subject to Defra's
approval and obviously the views of this committee and then the combined
authority on the 3rd of April is to hopefully be live by May or June this
year and I think that'll be quite positive for the region and equally
we've got potentially a range of habitat land sites and not so much ready to go
but in a pipeline. So initial scoping is 15 across the four districts and
we're potentially kind of five to seven and able to come forward over the next
12 to 24 months. Which obviously eats an open market and developers may
choose not to offset their impacts locally but like I said before the
the BNG system is geared toward local delivery where possible.
So hopefully we should be able to attract and retain some of that biodiversity investment locally.
So that's broadly kind of everything in the summary of that chart.
Obviously seeking the committee's endorsement today and prior to going to command authority on 3rd April for a formal approval to become an RB, a responsible body.
Thank you.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:54:37
Thanks for the update Justin. I think Martin's first question. Thank you. Yeah,
Martyn Broadest, Advisory Representative (West Yorks Housing Partnership) - 1:54:42
really welcome this. I noted the focus was on local authority landowners, land
owned by local authorities and I appreciate the links to the LRS and
those strategic sites so I get all that. I would like to see at some point the
opportunity for community -owned land assets to be included in this. There are
models around the country. I'm thinking of the Green Estate in Sheffield who as
a local community voluntary sector organization do a lot of good work in
this space and I think there's lots of opportunities for community -led
organizations who may own or wish to own or be requested land to actually
enhance it and make really good use of BNG funding to help help do that so just
it feels like restricting it to local authority landowners is a bit
monopolistic. Thank you Martin. I think with this it's been with Baby Steps. It's a
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:55:44
new process and we've put a lot of resource into at this stage but it is
geared to be flexible and so the idea was we've got quite quite regular
review points in the service and we'll look at then you know if it's
operational and working well and equally that is market demand. I always
when I'm selling this to directors and kind of explaining it to them I talk about it in
terms of opening the shop. We can make our products as shiny as possible, the
shelves are stocked, the doors are open but if nobody comes through the door
it's not really going to work so we're just trying to gear up
sequentially on this so that is very much on our radar and if it does work
and if there is appetite there as well.
So thank you, Martin.
Excellent, Leah.
Thank you.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:56:24
And again, building on what Martin said,
Leah Stuart (Private Sector Representative) - 1:56:26
is there opportunity to look at land
within public highway, public realm, and some of the schemes
that we're delivering subs or where we're delivering
tree planting in streets which benefit communities,
much really locally to them, and having that as part of the BNG
be offset as well.
I think in principle yes that could happen and it would depend on the land
ownership. I think some of the sites you mentioned they're probably in local
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:57:00
authority ownership anyway and so that is something that could fall into that
pipeline of schemes which I mentioned and I think they are some kind of
highway verge type opportunities that have been identified and I think
the thing we're conscious on with those is that some of those narrow kind of
strips are quite problematic in terms of managing them
in the longer term and also from encroachment.
So we're just trying to go through a process of finding
a way to manage those and, yeah, to minimize any risks
if you take them forward.
But they are now our radar.
Leah Stuart (Private Sector Representative) - 1:57:33
I just wanted to know if there's a way of kind of enhancing
highway schemes that you were doing anyway with that funding
so that you get kind of more out, you know,
like Greater Green and Sheffield.
or so you're kind of helping added benefit.
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:57:50
Yeah that's something we're doing across the team so I think that one
worked example there is the mass transit program and so my team are working quite
closely with the mass transit team on that in terms of baking in those
open site biodiversity and environmental improvements within the scheme so this
is slightly different than it is offsetting in terms of the BNG work we're
talking about in this item, but it turns out on scheme delivery, yes, that's very much
something that I'm trying to kind of drill into other colleagues' minds in terms of what
we can do on site within the funding envelope that we've got for some particular schemes
and investments.
Richard?
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 1:58:26
Richard Goodfellow (Private Sector Representative) - 1:58:26
Yeah, just on the appreciate it's not the main point, but sorry, could you just spark
something there?
I just want to see if there's anybody from Yorkshire Water here, just not an offsite
of it.
Sorry.
But yeah, so I work with some other water companies where they're actively working with
where the report back would be Yorkshire Water
and West Yorkshire working really closely together on SUDs
because they've got a little SUDs work they're doing.
A lot of the impact that they can make
is in land that they don't own.
So it might be highways, it might be street works going on,
and it's just, I appreciate I've gone slightly off agenda,
it's just, I didn't hear the words Yorkshire Water
whenever you were speaking, coming back on that point,
and so it was just a point there that there's other regions
where the water undertakers are actively going to the WICUs and the local councils
and you'd be telling us about all the work you're doing with the Yorkshire Water on this point.
Justin Wilson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:59:21
Thank you for that. I think in terms of our flooding program, I think we have got quite a broad partnership on that
and we are collaborating with a range of partners, so at the Yorkshire Water you're now mixed in terms of some of the schemes we're supporting and co -funding.
I think moving forward, I think you're probably right, there is a bit of a gap on that, we could do more.
So the various kind of policies, strategy tools in other regions,
so they're connected by water in South Yorkshire
and living with water in Humberside,
where they've got a deeper partnership,
not just with the water company but also the environment agencies as well.
So it's something we're trying to scope out.
It's quite timely actually because I think it was about two or three weeks ago
we had a bit of a scoping workshop with partners to flesh out
what that could look like locally.
and so yeah timely comment and we're definitely working on that thank you
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 2:00:11
thank you and hope it all goes well when you put it to the Climate Authority on the third
and keep us posted because it would be great if we could go live sooner rather than later
okay last item on the agenda last but not least Noel

12 West Yorkshire Public / Private Climate Partnership - Draft Action Plan (2025/26)

Got me again unfortunately, sorry everybody.
So this paper is around and hopefully answers some of the questions perhaps there was
posed as part of the climate environment plan item around where we're at with the strategic climate environment partnership, which
you all had a paper on I think it's
one of the meetings last year, can't remember quite off the top of my head, but anyway
We've moved on a little bit in terms of where we've got to with that and what's presented in the paper is
The proposed kind of draft action plan for the partnership and over the next 12 months
Noel Collings, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 2:01:07
And this is focused around five key areas and this has been developed as a result of kind of conversations
with the partners about what it is that they think they can work with us on over the next kind of 12 months and
to
kind of establish the partnership and to be able to build on it in future years
hopefully. So it looks at five areas so there's climate finance and commercial
models that have been identified so that's very much kind of tapping into
the kind of experience of these organisations and being able to develop
their own financing mechanisms and commercial models. There's some
intelligence there that we can kind of tap into and use as part of the work
that we're doing on say the climate fund kind of work
that we've talked about already in this committee meeting.
So it would be worthwhile kind of tapping into that
and exploring the models that they've applied
to see how it could benefit us as a region really.
The second one is really around financial offers.
So we've delivered lots of programs that provide
kind of support to our businesses and residents around
to help them decarbonize.
So we've got the rebiz program, the business sustainability
program that we know about.
We've got the loans that have kind of been live,
and the sort of collective kind of buying kind of process.
So there is appetite, obviously, out there across West Yorkshire
to do more of this.
So the partners already have some financial offers
out there for residents as it stands,
and businesses as it stands.
So for example, Ingham, one of the partners,
have got a zero percent loan offer on heat pumps which is quite attractive really. So
there's obviously some knowledge and experience so again it would be worth tapping into that
and understanding that and working with those organisations to see what could be done in
that space as part of the partnership. The next one is around the sustainable home centres
though and there's a real commitment here too and a real acknowledgement of the fact
that behaviour change is going to be absolutely key to delivering some of the work, well a
lot of what we need to happen to get to 2038 net zero targets. So this is about establishing
sustainable home centres in each of the district centres for people to go in and look at technologies
to understand what a heat pump looks like, what solar looks like, all those different
technologies and there's already a commitment from one of the partners to do that and they're
to kind of bring the others in on board with that but that's at no cost to the
combined authority to kind of do that or local authority to do that. They just see
it as a really good piece of activity to do to really demonstrate the value of
some of these technologies. There's a matchmaking service, we all know the fact
that we can't do this as just the public sector and so we need to to be able to
kind of work with the private sector and to deliver some of this and part of that is making connections with
organizations around who might need to decarbonize, don't know how to decarbonize, want to make up to take advantage of the
support that may be on offer from each of those organizations.
Just a flag that's no obligation that much making but it's an opportunity for those conversations to take place and to explore
and make those links that maybe they wouldn't otherwise have made. And then the final one
is around workshops and events, so this is very much helping us to try and drive forward
activity which engages residents, engages businesses, helps us think about how do we
pull this all together as a collective ambition for West Yorkshire. It ties in obviously very
closely with that Sustainable Homes Centrepiece, but it's really about running those and
doing the donkey work I suppose in terms of moving those kind of workshops and events
forward so that we can actually reach more people and engage with more people.
So that's kind of the areas in focus. I just wanted to address previous concerns that had
been raised in these meetings as well in terms of the partnership and that was very much
around the perception that there might be an unfair advantage for the four private sector
organisations that were part of that and also the fact that it might disadvantage
some of the smaller organisations that are operating in West Yorkshire. So how
we've tried to overcome those two kind of concerns, we set up the the MOU
that's governing this partnership in a way that it's very clear that we will
adhere to public procurement rules. So wherever it is a combined authority
funded scheme that will be subject to public procurement rules and the four private sector partners will need to bid for it as anybody else will.
So we've been very very clear with them that that is kind of what will happen in terms of any kind of funding activity.
and we're also as an organisation very very committed to making sure that all opportunities
are really kind of publicised to quite a wide audience, we want to give opportunity for
all to kind of bid in for funding and schemes that we have. The other point in terms of
The points around giving disadvantages, again it links into that procurement piece in terms
of we are committed to sharing information so if we feel as though information that we've
talked about as part of the partnership might give them a competitive advantage we would
be committed to actually providing that information as part of the procurement processes as well.
So everybody is privy to the same information as the four private sector partners.
So hopefully that gives some confidence that we aren't giving an unfair advantage to those
kind of four organisations as part of the partnership and it is purely them recognising
the scale of the challenge and wanting to try and help and move the agenda forward within
West Yorkshire.
So happy to hand back to you, Chair, and take any questions.
Thank you.
So I'm really opening the floor for questions or any feedback on the action plan.
Okay. I think that's, I think it's,
I think it's nicely so clear and transparent cause you're right.
There has been a lot of questions in previous meetings about this kind of
relationship and I think it's really great that being open and transparent and
you know, that, that's really good. Thank you Noel. Well thank you everyone.
and thank you for your patience. Just a reminder as we get to the close the date
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 2:08:04
of the next meeting is 22nd of July but that is subject to the calendar of
meetings being approved by the Combined Authority itself where their annual
meeting is in June but assume it's the 22nd of July for your calendars. Okay,
all right, thank you. Bring the meeting to a close. Thanks.
you