Whilst investigating the best practices for governance at County Council and District Council levels for local area energy planning research identified nine principles that should be used to make up an effective, transparent and fair governance framework set out below:
Our research into appropriate governance frameworks for net zero covers three strands:
- A top-down approach, examining national and regional influences on governance and requirements for action on net zero, and perspectives on what makes governance align with the principles identified.
- A middle-out approach, drawing on two main sources of evidence: A) Examples of practice and governance from localities elsewhere in the UK, including comparable two-tier authorities or localities with devolution agreements or innovative approaches to governance and delivery, and B) Local actions on other issues which can offer insight into delivery, resourcing or collaborative models, such as the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Nature Recovery Strategy, or sub-regional healthcare provision.
- A bottom-up approach, exploring the specific governance enablers and challenges encountered in relation to particular Intervention Areas, by providing support to identify and address governance challenges, and to draw wider lessons for LAEP governance as a whole through scaling-up learning from specific cases.
Intervention Areas are the key technology types of areas of work that Local Area Energy Planning could take advantage of to reach net zero. These may be specific technologies, like solar panels, or policy-based approaches, such as developing new planning processes with net zero in mind.
Want to know more about governance for net zero? Contact our governance team here
