Newcastle Labour is proposing an additional £1.4 million investment to tackle climate change, protect the city’s trees and create cleaner and greener neighbourhoods.
The investment forms part of the Labour-led council’s budget proposals for 2021/22 and will provide additional resources to turn Newcastle’s environmental ambitions into practical action.
Labour is proposing £1 million to support the Net Zero Newcastle – 2030 Action Plan and accelerate work towards making Newcastle carbon neutral.
The funding could support a range of projects, including thermal imaging surveys to identify where improvements to buildings are most urgently needed, developing low-carbon heat networks and carrying out energy audits for community and voluntary organisations.
It will also support work to retrofit public buildings, develop the Newcastle GREEN renewable energy and energy-efficiency project and explore a new voluntary low-carbon standard for buildings.
A further £400,000 is proposed to support the upkeep and protection of Newcastle’s trees.
The investment will help maintain the city’s existing tree stock while supporting Labour’s ambition to increase Newcastle’s tree canopy and create leafier neighbourhoods.
Newcastle’s Tree Strategy aims to increase canopy cover across the city from 18.1% to 20% by 2050, alongside protecting and maintaining existing trees.
Cllr Clare Penny-Evans, Newcastle City Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Communities, said: “We all want Newcastle to be a clean, green and brilliant place to live, work and visit, and know that we must invest in our environment, not only to tackle the imminent threats posed by climate change, but to make our city somewhere we continue to be proud to call home.
“Providing the funds to support our Net Zero ambitions will allow us to not only bring more people together, so that we can collectively rise to the challenges we face and find the solutions we need to cut our emissions, but also support potential bids for the hundreds of millions of pounds in external funding we will need to make those aims a reality.”
Labour’s proposals put investment in Newcastle’s environment alongside the city’s wider recovery from the Covid pandemic, ensuring action on climate change also supports better neighbourhoods, greener jobs and a healthier city.