Agenda item

a period of up to 15 minutes is available to deal with questions submitted to the Council in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules;

It was noted that the following public questions had been received in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules, for consideration at this meeting.  The responses are set out in bold, and were circulated at the meeting.

Question from Robert Vint:

“What discussions have taken place with Plymouth City Council and with West Devon Borough Council about jointly reviewing Sustainable Construction and Renewable Energy policies in their Joint Local Plan in order to enable effective and immediate responses by all three councils to their own Climate Emergency declarations?”

Response:

Plymouth City Council, West Devon Borough Council and South Hams District Council collaborated on the production of the Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan, and are now working together to deliver that plan.  The Councils have a joint team, the Joint Local Plan team, which oversees the monitoring, delivery and review of the Joint Local Plan.  A Joint Local Plan Partnership Board comprising Members from each authority oversees work on the JLP.  Discussions on the Joint Local Plan take place in these groups and have reached the following conclusions:

An early review and update of the JLP would not be appropriate response to the declaration of Climate Change and Biodiversity Emergency made by South Hams District Council, for the following reasons:

1.      The Joint Local Plan already contains a strategy for managing growth over the plan period which is firmly rooted in the principles of sustainable development, focusing development in the city and towns which have a range of facilities accessible by sustainable means of transport.  The first two policies of the plan, SPT1 and SPT2 set ‘golden threads’ running through the entire plan, making clear that the principles of sustainable development, sustainable linked neighbourhoods and sustainable rural communities apply to all development.  Reinforcing these principles are a number of development control policies which will have a direct effect on carbon emissions in the future and on the protection and enhancement of biodiversity – for example DEV26, DEV27, DEV32, DEV33 and DEV34.  These policies have very recently been found sound by a Planning Inspector and comply with the NPPF and NPPG, and it is unclear in what way they should be considered to be out of date or inadequate;

2.      If the Joint Local Plan were to be immediately reviewed and updated, the Councils would also be immediately announcing that the strategy and policies were out of date.  The announcement would mean that the policies would no longer have full weight as adopted policies of the development plan, and it would consequently be more difficult to apply them to development proposals coming forward across the plan area.  The result would likely to be a period while the JLP was being updated, when the low carbon policies could not be applied with full weight, housing policies may also be deemed out of date as the strategy was revisited, leading to risks to the 5 year land supply;

3.      A review and update of the JLP would not be a rapid process.  The process of creating the JLP took three years and is noted as a very fast timescale for the production of a local plan.  Updating the JLP on the scale suggested would take a similar time, and possibly longer if Councils wished to pursue ambitious policies going beyond the NPPF with no certainty that the objectives would be achieved.  Such a timescale does not seem to be the best use of resources to address the Emergencies that have been declared;

4.      Finally, in order to trigger a review and update of the Joint Local Plan, all three Councils (South Hams District Council, West Devon Borough Council, and Plymouth City Council) would need to agree to such a course of action.  South Hams District Council cannot make the decision unilaterally.

The Councils are committed to reviewing and updating the JLP within 5 years of its adoption – ie adopting a JLP which has updated any policies deemed to be out of date by 2024.  It is therefore suggested that the best way forwards is to keep to this timescale, whilst developing more immediate responses to the Climate and Biodiversity Emergencies through the Action Plans being created.

Question from Ella Dangerfield:

“The Government is proposing to remove local authority powers to set high energy efficiency standards in new homes and to scrap the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard (FEES). Details attached. Having declared a Climate Emergency, will this Council respond to the Government’s consultation (deadline 7th February) to oppose these proposals?”

Response:

Yes, the Council will be responding to the Future Homes Standard 2019 Consultation calling for a significant uplift in building standards combined with a more robust and comprehensive assessment of the net carbon of a dwelling that considers how a building is used and not just how it is built or where the primary energy comes from.  The Council considers that the ineffective binary options offered by the Future Homes Standard consultation fall a long way short of what is required.

Question from Chris Snow:

“A global alliance of environmental organisations have recently evaluated the carbon footprints of the world’s largest financial institutions (link attached). Will this council, as part of its Climate Action Plan, act to ensure that its investments are not used to finance further expansion of fossil fuel extraction?

https://www.banktrack.org/download/banking_on_climate_change_2019_fossil_fuel_finance_report_card/banking_on_climate_change_2019.pdf"

Response:

The Council is able to consider the declaration of a Climate Change and Biodiversity Emergency within the Treasury Management function, but any changes need to be very carefully assessed. Policies need to be universally applied and backed by on-going monitoring. This is already undertaken through the application and monitoring of minimum credit ratings and maximum duration limits contained within the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy (i.e. addressing Security and Liquidity) and, therefore, any additional requirements need to be applied in a similarly consistent manner.

If the Council formally adopts some form of additional overlay over and above Security, Liquidity and Yield, then the Council will need to address how to encapsulate such a position and what the potential consequences of this would be. Importantly, it should not be something that would be deemed to run contrary to Local Authority regulatory requirements of Security, Liquidity and Yield. Just as important, it should cover all potential investment options that the Council could make, i.e. universal coverage, where possible.

The Council’s Investments are currently mainly in UK based Banks and Building Societies and the CCLA (Churches, Charities and Local Authorities) Property Fund. It is also important to stress that the Council’s investments are predominantly sterling-denominated term deposits. These are not long-term investments that are specifically used by financial institutions to “on-finance” projects, but are used as part of day to day cash flow balances.

The Treasury Management Strategy is reviewed annually and the implications of the declaration of a Climate Change and Biodiversity Emergency will be considered as part of this process.