The Climate Action, Environment and Highways Policy and Scrutiny Committee were scheduled to meet to discuss the council's response to extreme weather, and its progress towards becoming a net zero city by 2040. Councillors were also expected to review and approve the committee's work programme for forthcoming meetings.

Net Zero 2040

The committee was scheduled to receive a report inviting feedback on the council's approach to enabling city-wide emissions reductions, and its progress towards the net zero 2040 target.

The report noted that Westminster Council had declared a climate emergency in 2019, committing to achieving net zero emissions by 2030 for the council, and 2040 for the wider city, which is ten years ahead of the UK's national targets.

It stated that citywide emissions had decreased by 17% between 2017 and 2022, largely because of the decarbonisation of the national electricity grid. The report also noted that the council was only responsible for 2% of citywide emissions in 2022, but had decreased its own organisational emissions by 30% between 2022 and 2025.

The report stated that the council was ranked in the top ten leading single-tier councils in the country for climate action in 2025.

The report also stated that the challenges in achieving net zero are not unique to Westminster, with reports of up to two thirds of councils expressing a lack of confidence in their ability to reach targets.

The report invited the committee to consider:

• opportunities to leverage impactful action across the city to bring down city-wide emissions
• insights that could help the council strengthen its narrative to the public around environmental action
• how the council could better strengthen the co-benefits of delivering climate action to drive improvements in health, wellbeing and reduced inequality across the city.

The report stated that the largest proportion of emissions came from non-domestic buildings, approximately 68% of the total. It also noted that the largest proportion of emissions came from electricity consumption, approximately 43% of the total emissions.

The report referred to the council's Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP), stating that modelling showed that to reach Net Zero the council needed to:

• substantially upscale the delivery of local clean heat via the roll-out of individual heat pumps and large-scale heat networks
• increase local renewable energy generation, including local community energy projects
• reduce local energy demand through building retrofit
• improve electrical infrastructure, including electric vehicle charging.

The report mentioned several projects and activities supporting the delivery of the LAEP pathway, including:

• Strategic energy mapping
• WCC-led heat network project development
• Zoning regulations
• South Westminster Area Network (SWAN)
• Warm Homes Local Grant
• Queens Park Avenues Healthy Homes
• Home Energy Advice Service
• Selective licensing
• The Westminster Retrofit Taskforce
• Climate Champions
• Greener Living
• Sustainable City Charter (SCC)
• Green Live Learning Lab
• Westminster Climate Fund (Carbon Offset Funding)

The report also stated that the council had updated its local plan to support wider decarbonisation efforts, ensuring that new developments minimise their carbon impact, and that the new City Plan would continue to drive ambitious environmental standards in the built environment.

Extreme Weather Impacts

The committee was scheduled to receive a report outlining Westminster City Council's response to extreme weather, particularly flooding and extreme heat.

The report stated that climate change is driving increasingly severe and frequent weather events, and that the council's approach is grounded in evidence, including the Climate Risk & Vulnerability Assessment, Strategic Flood Risk Assessment and extensive community engagement.

The report highlighted the development and early implementation of the Cool Neighbourhoods Strategy, which is structured around three pillars:

• Cool Communities - helping people know how to stay cool by building their adaptive capacity
• Cool Buildings - helping people stay cool in their homes and public buildings
• Cool Places - helping people stay cool outside in the public realm.

The report also stated that WCC is designated as a Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) by the Flood & Water Management Act 2010, giving the council powers and responsibilities in relation to managing local flood risk. It outlined the LLFA's approach to these duties and progress made to date on the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) 2024-2030.

The report invited the committee to consider whether the overall approach to tackling flooding and heat addresses the key risks and priorities that matter most for Westminster's communities, and whether there were any areas of concern or opportunity that the council should consider accelerating or enhancing delivery of in the short and long term.

The report noted that in 2019, the council declared a climate emergency and set a clear ambition to become a net zero organisation by 2030 and a net zero city by 2040, and that in 2023, Westminster declared an ecological emergency, recognising the growing impact of climate change and urban development on the city's biodiversity and natural ecosystems.

The report stated that Westminster's dense urban fabric, combined with its historic building stock and conservation areas, makes it particularly vulnerable to extreme heat, and that the urban heat island effect is particularly pronounced in Westminster's most densely built areas, including Marylebone, Queen's Park and Church Street.

The report stated that the council had identified and onboarded 25 registered Cool Spaces on the Mayor of London's Cool Spaces Map over the summer, the highest number of any London borough.

The report noted that due to the highly built-up nature of Westminster and its limited drainage capacity, surface water is the most likely cause of flooding in the area, and that basement dwellings, which are common in Westminster, are particularly vulnerable to flooding from surface water runoff as well as the sewer surcharging through sewer connections in basement properties.

The report stated that the council has embarked on a £3.7million Sustainable Drainage Systems¹ (SuDS) delivery programme to manage the risk of surface water flooding across the city, and that SuDS are being constructed across public realm improvement schemes, and have been incorporated in the following areas: Maida Hill Market, Queen's Park Canalside, Shepherd Market, Elgin Avenue and Westbourne Green Canalside.

The report also referred to the council's Reducing Flooding Through Innovation Programme, which is looking at three new innovative ways to store large quantities of stormwater during extreme events:

• Identifying disused underground spaces in Westminster and investigating the feasibility to re-purpose these spaces to attenuate surface water during storm conditions.
• Working with the Royal Parks to investigate the feasibility of installing a series of SuDS in Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens which would capture large amounts of surface water runoff from within the park and north of the park.
• Assessing the council's own Corporate Estate in order to capture rainwater from roofs and slow the flow to the combined sewer.

Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to review its work programme and discuss any new topics for scrutiny. The report noted that the committee had met on 7 May 2025 to discuss items for its work programme after the Cabinet Member Updates held in April 2025.

The committee was reminded that its work programme is flexible to allow for any urgent issues that might arise.

The committee was scheduled to discuss the formal meeting date for the 2025/2026 municipal year, set for Thursday 29th January 2026.

The committee was also scheduled to consider whether they would like to establish any task groups or commission any single member studies to examine key issues in more detail.

The committee was scheduled to review the committee tracker, which records the recommendations, information requests and actions arising from each meeting.

The report listed the following items for the meeting on 29th January 2026:

• Highways Contract Procurement Process
• Ecological Emergency

Other items

The agenda also included items on:

• Membership - to note any changes to membership.
• Declarations of interest - to receive declarations by members and officers of the existence and nature of any pecuniary or significant interests in matters on the agenda.
• Minutes - to approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 25th September 2025 and the Extraordinary Call-In meeting held on 14th October 2025.