Professor Brian ? Gallach?ir:

That is a challenge, in the sense of having direct responsibility for around 2% of overall emissions in the areas and yet having this wider remit and role. Some of that is an indirect responsibility through the planning process. Compact growth is something we pointed to in volume 2.

Second, there is a championing role that we are seeing emerge with the mission cities, for example. Last week, it was great to see that 31 local authorities have now completed climate action plans. Given the limited powers and budgets within that context, what can be achieved is still a work in progress. Certainly both of those would need to be addressed for local authorities to deliver their full potential. We did some interesting work previously with the Office of the Planning Regulator that we drew on in volume 2, looking specifically at the local authority development plan and climate action. We found that local authorities interpret their role very differently. There is a role under the Act but a lot of these local authority development plans predated the Act. Planning legislation has called out sustainable development for a number of years. That is an emerging role and it is one of the pieces of the jigsaw that needs to be urgently addressed to help us accelerate the emission reductions we need.

Compact growth is a key aspect in this regard in respect of dispersed settlement.