Cabinet member says “good progress” being made on the target but many obstacles remain, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Alan Scheiderlin (inset left) says heat pumps (inset right, credit Arnt Brandseth) can help the council reach net zero — Alan Schneiderman (inset left) says heat pumps (inset right, credit Arnt Brandseth) can help the council reach net zero

Barnet Council could need to spend £10m per year to reach its 2030 ‘net zero’ target, a committee has heard.

During the overview and committee meeting on Tuesday (23rd), Alan Schneiderman, cabinet member for environment and climate change, gave an update on decarbonisation efforts across the council’s properties, including office buildings and housing.

He said “good progress” was being made, especially around implementing the latest technology, such as heat pumps, which use electricity to transfer heat indoors and have been installed in council buildings and in some homes.

However, Cllr Schneiderman warned the council’s future ambitions were “dependent” on available funding. He listed resources used including the government’s decarbonisation fund, and the Mayor of London’s energy efficiency fund, and said the council was working on applying for the Greater London Authority’s green finance fund.

Labour committee member Emma Whysall asked how the “roadmap” looked for 2030 and whether the team were “confident they’d get there”.

Chris Smith, assistant director of estates and decarbonisation, said they had prioritised the “highest emitters” first. This included schools and libraries but, he estimated, the council needed to spend about “£10million a year” in order to hit their 2030 deadline.

Conservative committee member Richard Cornelius said he had a “suspicion” the programme may not deliver on savings. He asked if the programme would be “slow to deliver” and, if the running costs were found to be more than anticipated, whether it would fall on the users of buildings to make up for it.

In response, Cllr Schneiderman said the feedback was that “it’s working very well” but that it would be “constantly reviewed”.

Further defending the net zero plans, Chris said carbon savings and cost savings were “essentially guaranteed” and calculations so far “demonstrate there are actual savings” in the schools with new installations.

He added the council was working on funding a programme around insulating schools where needed, to ensure costs stay down.

Cllr Whysall asked about extending an opportunity for the private sector to be brought into the programme in future. In response Chris said it was being considered for the private sector but was a “ways off” because there were “legal hurdles”.

During the meeting councillors also scrutinised a financial report covering the third quarter of 2023/24.

Council leader Barry Rawlings said the “main thing” was the expected deficit for this period was “reduced”, but work was ongoing to decrease it further.

Labour committee member Paul Lemon asked whether work was being done with other boroughs to “share generic services” to further reduce costs. Cllr Rawlings said services were “always” being looked at for a “possibility of collaboration”.

Labour committee member Edith David raised concerns around the “level” of NHS debt owed to the council.

Dean Langston, assistant director of finance, said it had reduced from £30m to £23m and that there was a commitment from the NHS to pay another £14m in the first week of February. There was also around “£3m-4m of disputed payment” but they were “bottoming that out”.

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