How the Core Cities are leading on Net Zero

Birmingham

Working towards a Net Zero city

Birmingham is procuring three ECO installer partners to deliver home retrofit measures. The three partners will work with the council, communities and other stakeholders, to drive the delivery of energy efficiency measures to over 3,000 Birmingham homes.  The initiative will harness £45m per year of private investments, achieve estimated fuel bill savings of £1.2m, and reduce the carbon emissions from the city’s homes by 4,500 tonnes per year.

Digital and smart solutions

Birmingham City Council, partnered with the Connected Places Catapult led Digital Innovation Transformative Change (DIATOMIC) Accelerator project. BCC is working with 8 participating SME’s to nurture Birmingham’s innovation ecosystem through tackling four urban challenges (data insights, performance, citizen engagement, knowledge sharing) and improving the delivery of the city's housing, adult social care and waste services.  The Route to Net Zero team worked with Furbnow and Novoville to support a trial of the Novoville ‘Shared Works’ tool with the council’s housing team, to improve the retrofit journey for tenants and contractors. To date DIATOMIC has recruited 6FTE, secured £180,000 research and development funding, £47,000 public sector funding, attracted £71,000 private investment, and established 40 new collaborations with external organisations. 

Bristol

Bristol City Leap

Bristol City Leap is a pioneering, £1 billion twenty-year public-private partnership between Bristol City Council, Ameresco, and Vattenfall Heat UK, aiming to achieve city-scale decarbonization through the installation of low carbon energy infrastructure (renewables, energy efficiency, low carbon heat networks, electric vehicle charging points, smart energy). In its first 5 years (2023-27) it plans to deliver environmental as well as social outcomes including 140,000 tonnes of carbon savings, £61.5 million in social value, 1,000 local jobs/apprenticeships and a £1.5 million Community Energy Fund. The partnership is based on a 20-year concession agreement for the development of low carbon projects in the city council’s assets, and has recently won the prestigious 2024 Award for Public-Private Collaboration in Cities by the Global Partnership for Local Investment, an initiative of the World Economic Forum in collaboration with UN-Habitat. 

Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership

Bristol has developed the largest city based environmental network in Europe with over 1,200 member organisations – the Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership, building upon its success as the European Green Capital 2015.  One of their projects, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund and supported by the Council, is the Community Climate Action Project where community climate action plans have been co-produced focused on social and climate justice in 8 neighbourhoods experiencing inequality and disadvantage and also communities of disabled people and migrants.  

Cardiff

Solar farm at Lamby Way

Lamby Way solar farm produces 9mw (megawatts) of green electricity. That is enough to power 2,900 homes. It can be a challenge to make space for energy generation in a dense city like Cardiff. To tackle this, the solar farm is on an old landfill site.

As well as reducing Cardiff’s greenhouse gas emissions, the project has increased biodiversity by sowing wild plant seeds and providing refuges for the rare reptiles, bats, and birds that inhabit the site.

Low carbon heat network

Cardiff Heat Network will use excess heat from a waste incinerator (burning non-recyclable waste) to provide sustainable heat to buildings in Cardiff Bay. The turbines generate 250 GWh (gigawatt hour) of electricity.  Buildings that connect to the network will no longer need their own gas boiler and their greenhouse gas emissions will go down by up to 80%. The project will save over 10,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. This is roughly the same as the carbon produced from heating 3,700 homes.

Construction of the first phase of the heat network is due to be completed by the end of February 2025.

Glasgow

Decarbonising heat

Glasgow City Council has recognised that the decarbonisation of heat in the city is key to it achieving its Net Zero Carbon ambitions. By creating its Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy, the Council has identified 21 Heat Zones in the City. To enable the delivery of the infrastructure required to transition these zones onto zero carbon heat, the Council has initiated a process to evaluate the creation of both a Climate Delivery Vehicle, to deliver the infrastructure in partnership with the private sector, and a Climate Investment Vehicle, to unlock investment for Net Zero projects.  

Community Renewable Energy Framework

Glasgow City Council published a Community Renewable Energy Framework in September 2024 to support the development of community-led renewables projects, particularly through leasing vacant land owned by the Council. 

Sheffield

Heat Network Development and Zoning 

Sheffield has two existing heat networks in the city.

The Veolia District Energy Network is powered from Sheffield’s Energy Recovery Facility as part of the council’s waste management contract. The network, as it is today, was conceived in the 1980’s and has continually expanded since, coupled with the development of an Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) which also generates electricity for the national grid. The Veolia network is one of the UK’s largest with over 45km of pipework serving around 130 buildings in and around the city centre. The ERF is able to produce over 20MW of electrical energy and has a peak capacity of 60MW available for the district heating network. 

EON own and operate a biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant at Blackburn Meadows that has been operational since 2015. The CHP uses waste wood to generate 30MW of electricity and up to 25MW of thermal energy of which it currently supplies about 20 per cent of this capacity through its 8km of district heating network serving commercial connections in the Lower Don Valley area of Sheffield. EON is currently in receipt of Green Heat Network Funding to deliver a first phase of planned expansion to their network by a further 10km of pipework and supplying a further 33GWh of heat. 

Since 2021, Sheffield City Council has been a participant in the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) Heat Network Zoning Pilot Programme, which aimed to develop and test the model for identifying and designating Heat Network Zones and has indicated that there could be up to 14 zones across the city.  Subsequently, Sheffield are participants in DESNZ’s Advanced Zoning Programme (AZP) which aims to support the acceleration of zonal scale heat network delivery.  Initial feasibility work undertaken across the city centre and Lower Don Valley parts of the city indicated that under Heat Network Zoning regulations there could be around 1800 buildings in this area that could be required to connect to heat networks with a total heat demand of 1,140GWh and total investment requirement for the entire zonal development opportunity of over £2bn with an estimated reduction of 2.5mt/CO2 over 15 years and 7mt.CO2 over 40 years. 

The AZP is currently now focussed on the technical design of a heat network within the Lower Don Valley, with procurement for a development partner to commence later in 2025. 

Decarbonising housing

Expansion of our SCC Housing Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) and new partnerships is allowing for increased activity. We have successfully delivered a range of retrofit initiatives contributing toward energy efficiency and low carbon heating. This includes the continuing development of the Warm Homes Sheffield offer, including the first in-person event providing energy advice and support from a range of organisations. A collaboration with National Energy Action (NEA) has established a retrofit hub in Sharrow. This supports residents through their ‘retrofit journey’ by providing advice and support, focusing on residents on low incomes and experiencing fuel poverty. 

Future work

The council submitted two ambitious bids to the Department of Net Zero & Energy Security (DESNZ) under the Warm Homes schemes; 

• £12.9m Local Grant for approximately 880 private sector homes 
• £8.6m grant contribution toward a £14.2m project under the Social Housing Fund, targeting 1.899 homes for energy efficiency measures

Further planned work includes the development of a solar PV strategy for council homes and demonstrator projects for low-carbon technologies, including installing air-source and ground-source heat pumps, and exploring technologies such as infrared heating.

Leeds

The PIPES district heating network

The Leeds PIPES district heating network delivers heat from Leeds’s non-recyclable waste to homes, businesses and public buildings across the city, delivered with their long-term commercial partner Vital Energi. Customers benefit from more reliable, affordable, lower carbon heating and there has been a rapid increase in the number of prospective customers the council is working with for future connections. 

Headline achievements to date are as follows £58.8m total network investment, including £27.4m of grant funding secured; around 30km of pipework installed, with over 50 individual buildings connected; over 2,000 council flats and a range of student accommodation, public sector and commercial buildings connected; over 28,000 MWh heat delivered across the whole network during 2023/24, saving almost 6,000 tonnes of carbon; employment of over 400 people, including 19 apprentices, and several prestigious, national awards, including ‘Energy Project of the Year – Residential’ at the Energy Awards.

Climate action in the culture sector

Leeds is working through its cultural investment programme to support SAIL who are working to enable the cultural sector to better understand, develop and report its environmental data to establish a baseline carbon footprint and support future action to tackle the climate emergency.

Manchester

A zero carbon climate resilient city 

Manchester has been running a heat network in its civic quarter since 2021, connecting six civic buildings and resulting in an annual carbon savings target. All of the city’s streetlights have been running on LED since 2023, saving over 350 tonnes of CO2 since 2020. Half of the city’s waste collection vehicles are now electric. The Council has entered into a PPA to procure 100% renewable energy from 2025 onwards and has invested over £52m in decarbonising its estate, saving an estimate 3,100 tonnes of CO2 per annum. Over 12,000 social homes have had a stock condition survey to help better understand the energy performance of the homes, and over 800 retrofit measures have been installed to increase the comfort levels and reduce energy costs for residents. Significant nature-based solutions have been integrated within large scale developments, leading to creation of two new parks, and a detailed climate risk assessment has been carried out which is feeding into a tailored adaptation plan for the city. In Wythenshawe, a joint venture partnership between the City Council and Muse has set an ambition to deliver the UK’s first Positive Energy District (PED) with city region partners through the DESNZ funded Local Net Zero Accelerator programme. By delivering highly energy efficient buildings – along with native trees, urban allotments, and roof gardens – achieving PED status at Civic is part of a clear roadmap to achieving net zero carbon and greatly improving local biodiversity. 

Working in Partnership

Manchester’s Climate Change Partnership has been running since 2018 and brings together over 120 organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors to support development of its climate change strategy and targets and to work collaboratively to implement change. Recent projects have focused on creating an evidence base for stronger net zero targets within the Local Plan and accelerating the retrofit of commercial office buildings.

Newcastle

Helix Heat Network 

The Helix Heat Network opened in 2020, is a £20 million energy centre funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Local Growth Deal. This 732m2 energy centre provides district heating, district cooling and private wire electricity to the Helix site which is mixed use commercial consisting of office and university space. 

It is estimated the energy centre has saved 30,650 thousand tonnes of carbon over its lifetime, this is calculated by estimating the energy which would have been used if the connected buildings were powered on through individual gas boilers. This carbon benefit is hoped to increase to around 80% reduction by 2030 once the network starts the green transition and displaces gas usage with low carbon high efficiency heat pumps. 

The heat network has expanded off site to connect the Discovery Museum, replacing an old, dilapidated boiler plant and a similar extension planned for Newcastle College in 2025/2026. 

Decarbonising tower blocks

Progress is being made to ensure hundreds of homes in the Shieldfield and Heaton Park Court tower blocks, will have insulation improved, new windows, and heating installed. EQUANS and RE:GEN on behalf of Newcastle City Council (NCC) is midway through decarbonisation efforts to make four tower blocks which dominate the local skyline efficient and warmer places to live. As well as each tower block having a new air source heat pump fitted to its roof, residents will also benefit from more efficient radiators, new smart thermostats, external wall insulation and new windows. The measures have received a 96% satisfaction rate from the residents and will result in a reduction on their energy bills and a decrease in carbon emissions as we work to achieve Net Zero. 

Poor quality housing, particularly damp and cold homes, directly harm physical and mental health and poor housing conditions continues to widen health inequalities. Newcastle City Council is working hard to ensure its social housing stock is comfortable, efficient and enhances wellbeing and equality across the city. 

Nottingham

Implementing a workplace parking levy

In 2012 Nottingham City Council introduced the first Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) of its kind in the northern hemisphere. The WPL acts as a type of congestion charging scheme, placing a charge on employers who provide workplace parking, thus encouraging people working in the city to choose public transport or active travel. In 10 years the WPL levy has raised almost £90 million, which allowed Nottingham to attract over £1 billion of investment in transport. As a result of the WPL and subsequent investment, congestion growth has been reduced by 47%, 17km has been added to the tram track, £120 million has been invested in low and zero emission buses, there has been a 26% growth in new businesses due to good transport links, and £1million has been given to local businesses in grants for sustainable transport improvements. 

Retrofitting social housing

Nottingham City Council launched their Greener HousiNG scheme in 2012, aiming to help social housing tenants and private homeowners reduce their energy bills and associated carbon emissions. Since the scheme launched, grant funding has provided approximately 13,000 energy efficiency improvements, including measures such as wall/loft insulation, new windows, as well as renewable technologies like solar panels and air-source heat pumps. Residents targeted through the scheme are those who are struggling with energy bills, so these improvements tackle both fuel poverty and support Nottingham's carbon reduction journey by reducing the amount of energy needed to heat the homes. 

In 2017 Nottingham City Council also pioneered the Energiesprong (energy leap) initiative with the support of a European Regional Development Fund grant of £5 million. This approach, developed in the Netherlands, gives homes a full energy efficiency retrofit including new insulated walls and windows, a solar roof, and a state of the art heating system, the end result being homes that are almost net-zero carbon. The initial 10-home pilot project involved hard-to-treat homes on the edge of the city, which was followed by a rollout to over 150 Nottingham City Home properties in 2019.