Agenda item

Agenda item

Delivery of public sector decarbonisation programme

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer attached

 

This report provides an update on the delivery of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme in Manchester.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, which provided an update on the delivery of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme in Manchester.

 

Key points and themes in the report included:

 

  • The scheme is delivering grant funded investment of £19.7m across eleven public buildings in Manchester;
  • Grant funding covers 100% of the capital works with a particular focus on heat reduction technology;
  • The Council received the full amount of its bid enabling the acceleration of decarbonisation and achievement of the Climate Change Action Plan Targets;
  • Ongoing challenge of short construction completion timescales set by government and ensuring carbon efficiencies are met.

 

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

 

  • Feeling that the report was telling some very powerful strategies for reducing the carbon footprint of the Council with clarity on the carbon-saving per pound spent. This is good news; an opportunity and a huge achievement to deliver but report and outcomes were important so should be better communicated;
  • With the scheme starting in the coming months would there be opportunities for local jobs and apprenticeships;
  • Ameresco were a delivery partner for this work but make no reference to the project on their website. Contractors should be promoting the positive work alongside the Council;
  • Lots of hard work would be required to deliver the projects by January 2022. The scheme focused on heat pumps, were there wider technologies that could be adopted for other schemes;
  • Clarity on the lifetime cost of any other technology that could be utilised;
  • How could funding be maximised for Manchester and what opportunities were being looked at to work with other public-sector bodies to invest in low-carbon for their estates;
  • The National Tennis Centre was identified within the report as a site but this remains a Covid-19 vaccination centre, what is the contingency if this is not available for work to be carried out; and
  • Were there opportunities for higher-risk but emerging carbon reduction technologies to be adopted at significantly reduced cost for providing opportunities to be a ‘pioneer’ prior to entrance for a product to the wider market – with an understanding from Councillors that this may mean that sometimes projects have variable success.

 

The Deputy Chief Executive welcomed the feedback on the scheme and agreed that it’s a good news story and exciting issue. The Executive Member for Environment also agreed that there were lots of work to be done to get the good news messages out via the Council’s website. This was a fully funded grant scheme which was good news for the city and residents. The Council was constantly looking at new funding sources in order to build a pipeline of project funding for decarbonisation by working closely with third-party operators.

 

The Head of Corporate Estates and Facilities stated that the supply chain were delivering local jobs and apprenticeships and that further information would be drawn out. Future reporting would take place on the percentage of carbon reduction achieved by the scheme. Work was being done with third party operators of buildings such as the leisure estate, Space Project and Sharp Project to enable climate targets to be met at a Manchester level and ensure that all public sector bodies had similar access to funding

opportunities. If access to carry out the works was not possible at the National Tennis Centre due to the current vaccination centre, the Council was working with the GMCA to identify similar projects and then could revisit the project as a priority when the site became available. Officer’s welcomed the steer to try pioneering technologies where these could be obtained at reduced cost, and pointed to a project where this had successfully been achieved already.

 

Decisions

 

1. To note the report;

2. The Executive Member for Environment is to feedback on the good news set out within the report and invite members to have conversations on how to communicate ongoing projects to residents; and

3. The Head of Corporate Estates and Facilities will circulate information on the commitments made by contractors regarding local jobs and apprenticeships and will share details with the Committee on the work done with third party operators of buildings such as the leisure estate, Space Project and Sharp Project to enable climate targets to be met.

 

Supporting documents: