Purpose

At its meeting of 18th January 2023, Council approved the allocation of £566,000 from the UKSPF for delivery of the Climate Change Strategy. At the same meeting, Council approved that “the award of UKSPF… funded grants and/or contracts to deliver… Climate Change Strategy objectives be delegated to the Head of Housing and Health acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability”.

The council’s Climate Change Strategy 2022 – 2026 includes an objective to: “Provide practical ways of encouraging sustainable options as the default position
for residents and businesses notably with regard to greener travel, renewable
energy, low carbon domestic heating and hot water”.

The following UKSPF outputs / outcomes accord strongly with the council’s Climate Change Strategy:
• number of decarbonisation plans developed as a result of support [from the UKSPF]
• amount of low or zero carbon energy infrastructure completed
• number of low or zero carbon energy infrastructure installed.

East Herts is fortunate in having a voluntary sector and numerous town and parish councils who are motivated to work with the council to reduce carbon. In order to mobilise these bodies, through discussion it has been identified that it is necessary to provide officer support with the explicit aim of supporting the drafting and delivery of decarbonisation plans, which in turn will see an increase in low or zero carbon infrastructure.

The Head of Housing and Health, acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability, is now using his authority to award UKSPF contracts, in this case employment contracts, to support the delivery of the Climate Change Strategy objective quoted above and thus UKSPF outcomes. The decision is to use up to £150,000 of UKSPF monies to employ two officers during 2023/24 and 2024/25 to work exclusively with partners to deliver the UKSPF outcomes listed above, along with related UKSPF measures. The allocation of £150,000 covers all officer costs, including employer NI and pension contributions, across the two years, 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Decision

To allocate up to £150,000 of UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) monies – consisting of up to £50,000 in 2023/24 and £100,000 in 2024/25 – to fund the employment of community advisors to deliver the Climate Change Strategy objectives by means of supporting community groups and town and parish councils to contribute to UKSPF environmental sustainability-related outputs and outcomes.

Alternative options considered

Option 1 - Delivery of the UKSPF outcomes by existing East Herts Council officers – NOT RECOMMENDED as the limited capacity of council officers would mean that, in all probability, the UKSPF outcomes could not be met.

Option 2 - Run a competitive process to outsource the necessary community support work – NOT RECOMMENDED as this could unnecessarily delay delivery, may not ultimately provide best value and, arguably, could distance the voluntary and town/parish council sectors from the council officers already working with them.