How did Greater Manchester Combined Authority score 100% in the Buildings, Heating and Green Skills sections of the Council Climate Action Scorecards? And how can other councils tackle one of their biggest sources of carbon emissions and poor health outcomes, building decarbonisation?

This is what our latest Scorecards in Action: Buildings & Heating explored, attended by  council representatives from Milton Keynes, Edinburgh and Hinckley and Bosworth. Here are three actions, drawn from  best practices shared on the day on how councils can effectively decarbonise the Buildings & Heating across their community. 

1. Run group switching and installation schemes with residents

George Frost from Ichoosr opened the session with examples of the impact councils can have by working with residents to encourage large-scale switching to renewable energy suppliers, solar panel or heat pump installations. Since their pilot Solar Together scheme in Norwich in 2015, now in its ninth year in that area, iChoosr have worked with over 200 councils across the UK.

George told us also about their first mass-installation heat pump scheme in Essex, which resulted in 10% of residents who registered actually installing a heat-pump, 99 more homes with a heat-pump, saving money and carbon emissions for these homes. 

2. Develop a retrofit strategy that’s built from the ground up

Not all councils are ready to roll-out mass installation projects. MCS Foundation’s Andrew Rice emphasised the need for a considered retrofit strategy from councils, written with those working on retrofit day by day, rather than a top-down approach: The Local Area Retrofit Accelerator methodology. 

This approach was adopted by Surrey County Council, which has led to accelerated retrofit delivery locally. Surrey now has a Surrey Green Construction Advisory Panel – of which Surrey County Council is a member – to promote, enhance and develop sustainable training and education opportunities for the housing and construction industries. MCS Foundation noted that where councils have engaged with both the Scorecards process and the LARA methodology, delivery has measurably improved.

3. Take a systemic, partnership-based approach

Finally, we heard from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the only local authority to achieve 100% in any Action Scorecard section. With a target for all homes to be EPC C by 2032, there are over 800,000 properties that need improvements. Robyn from GMCA shared a huge number of projects they are part of to work towards this goal, including their Good Landlord Charter, Powering Our Schools and the Energy Innovation Agency. 

When asked why she thought GMCA was doing so much on building decarbonisation compared to other Mayoral Authorities, Robyn identified three reasons. First, Mayor Andy Burnham has prioritised and championed this work, helping to secure funding and build sector and resident support. Second, strong links with the local universities, such as the Energy Innovation Agency have increased the Mayoral Authority’ s capacity and expertise. Third, GMCA has taken a systemic approach, working across departments and with a wide range of partners  to maintain focus and maximise impact. 

These three speakers shared tangible examples of effective work councils can do to decarbonise. From cutting residents’ energy bills with Solar Together, creating retrofit strategies that can actually be implemented with MCS Foundation and GMCA working academic and business partners to deliver home retrofit, there’s lots to learn from here. 

We were also pleased to share at the session that our recent research found  a positive link between councils’ engagement with CE UK, through sessions like this and the Action Scorecards process itself- and councils’ Action Scorecards results. We hope this peer-learning from our events will translate into tangible actions that we can recognise in the 2027 Action Scorecards – watch this space!

Image credit: 10:10 / Creative Commons