With ever tightening budgets, local authorities are working together to improve performance of waste and recycling services, and to deliver on carbon emissions commitments. Local Partnerships project director John Enright and associate Dr Jane Beasley explain.
The climate emergency affects the whole range of services that local government provides. One such service – waste and recycling – plays a crucial role in helping local and combined authorities develop a response and take critical steps on the trajectory to net-zero carbon emissions.
Tackling the challenge of addressing the changing climate requires leadership, bold financial and technical solutions, and adaptation. A good example of how this is being carried out across services is the Efficiencies in Waste Services in the South West of England report, published in April by Local Partnerships, a joint HM Treasury and Local Government Association venture.
This is the ninth regional review and completes an important national reference library across authorities in England. The report charts progress achieved in the delivery of efficiencies, with ever tightening budgets, along with improvements in performance in waste services – and, this year, climate change is at the forefront.
In all, 25 out of the 33 authorities in the region took part in the review, including all county councils, several unitary authorities, and a range of district and borough councils.
In all, 25 out of the 33 authorities in the region took part in the review, including all county councils, several unitary authorities, and a range of district and borough councils.
Through efficiencies and improvements in performance and practices, they identified more than £22m in savings per year. These savings were realised through a range of activities and initiatives, including joint contracts, partnership working, service changes, effective procurement, route optimisation and restructuring.
All authorities that responded have signed up to a climate change declaration, and many are working together to deliver on this commitment.
In Somerset, for example, all authorities have agreed to collaborate to produce and deliver an ambitious, joint Climate Emergency Strategy, encompassing the county. Each declaration is slightly different, but all aspire to achieve carbon neutrality, to ensure they limit the causes and effects of climate change within each local authority area.
Many authorities have taken action in areas where waste and resource management can make a significant contribution to carbon savings. This includes targeting vehicle use and movement, and prioritising a reduction in the proportion of waste requiring treatment or disposal.
Many authorities are at the early stages of developing detailed action plans and identifying deliverable outputs; however, some are openly ambitious in their priorities for action.
In it together
It cannot be overstressed how important partnership working is to delivering efficiencies and enhancing performance – and, where possible, increasing customer satisfaction rates. This is a key factor across all nine of the regional reports.
These partnership agreements include joint collection contracts, such as the one between South Hams and West Devon, which brings collective savings of more than £500,000 per year through joint procurement and contract delivery. In addition, the West of England Unitary partnership is delivering savings of around £500,000 per year in relation to joint residual waste-treatment costs.
Two-tier arrangements have also identified more effective ways of working together to realise benefits. Devon County Council has agreed with the district councils to implement a ‘shared savings scheme’. Legally binding, it aims to ensure that savings are quantified and shared with the district councils on a 50:50 basis.
This shows that incentivising district councils to make changes may be more effective in delivering disposal than collection savings. To date, this has generated a saving to the public purse of around £4m over a three-year period.
Partnership arrangements and joint working across the South West have facilitated the sharing of experiences, bringing together resources and expertise to address challenges successfully, and/or realise opportunities for improvements in performance, and to generate savings.
Partnership arrangements and joint working across the South West have facilitated the sharing of experiences, bringing together resources and expertise to address challenges successfully, and/or realise opportunities for improvements in performance, and to generate savings.
The prominence of concerns over climate change in this year’s report is no surprise. The evidence is clear that local and combined authorities have made great strides in the provision of waste and recycling services, and that these can – and do – play a vital role in delivering public services efficiently, effectively and in an environmentally conscious manner.
Local Partnerships is a joint venture between the Local Government Authority, HM Treasury and the Welsh Government and, as such, is a wholly owned public sector organisation.
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This feature first appeared in the May/June issue of Circular.
