Lewisham Council is set to enhance its climate resilience and accelerate heat decarbonisation efforts, following recommendations made by the Sustainable Development Select Committee.

The committee met on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, to review the council's climate emergency response and agreed on several key proposals for the refreshed Climate Strategy. A significant recommendation is to identify heat decarbonisation as a strategic priority in its own right, coordinating action across housing, schools, and the council's corporate estate. This focus comes in light of recent heatwaves and the evolving climate emergency, with the committee emphasizing the need for greater adaptation and resilience measures.

Martin O'Brien, Head of Climate Resilience, presented a report highlighting both progress and challenges. While acknowledging strong advancements in areas like housing retrofit and community energy projects, he noted significant hurdles including the high costs of decarbonisation, the necessity for infrastructure investment, and limitations on the council's control over borough-wide emissions.

Addressing the Climate Emergency: Key Proposals and Costs

The committee proposed several recommendations to Mayor and Cabinet for the refreshed Climate Strategy, aiming to strengthen accountability and clarify delivery amidst declining funding streams. A key proposal is to strengthen accountability through smart targets and more regular reporting to the committee. Councillor Suzannah Clarke sought clarification on the nature of these reports, with the Chair suggesting they would be for reading, questioning, and for Mayor and Cabinet to action.

The report itself indicates that Actions will have milestones or a deadline and a measure of success to support the intention for a transparent and deliverable strategy. It also notes that focusing on emissions that are under our control within the actions, that gives us that opportunity to frame smarter actions. However, setting meaningful smart targets for owner-occupier domestic properties is acknowledged as challenging, as is the council's limited control over borough-wide emissions, which account for approximately 98% of the total. Furthermore, funding is typically very short term, and we have no certainty over a horizon that goes beyond often the financial year that you're operating in. Therefore, a balance is being struck to make targets as smart as possible while retaining breadth of ambition.

Significant financial commitments are associated with these decarbonisation efforts. An assessment in 2025 estimated the total cost of retrofitting all homes in the borough to achieve net zero ambitions at £3.2 billion. For the council's own operations, the estimated costs are £273 million for corporate buildings, schools, and fleet, and £470 million for the council's housing stock. The Climate Budget 2025/26 further details these estimated decarbonisation costs: £31 million for corporate buildings, £135 million for schools, £50 million for fleet, and £5 million for street lights, totaling £224 million for Scope 1 and 2 emissions. For Council Housing, the estimated decarbonisation cost is £470 million.

Infrastructure and Community Engagement

Scaling up decarbonisation requires substantial investment in infrastructure such as heat networks, grid capacity, and electric vehicle charging. These are identified as high-cost and complex multi-stakeholder projects. A joint study with Lambeth, Southwark, and Greenwich in 2025 assessed infrastructure requirements for full power electrification, with evidence expected to report in late 2026, which will inform the new Climate Strategy. The development of heat networks is complex and long-term, reliant on major external funding and commercial agreements, with delivery expected in the early 2030s for some projects.

Giovanna Especial from South East London Community Energy (CELSE) shared insights on community-led initiatives, stressing the importance of energy efficiency and advice services for vulnerable residents. She also pointed out the difficulties in scaling up heat decarbonisation and retrofit, particularly for households that do not qualify for grants. The meeting highlighted that there is very little funding for homeowners for retrofit, and the supply chain is difficult for individuals to navigate. The Council's focus has been on raising awareness of existing funding, enabling qualifying households to benefit, and providing general advice. The Council has helped qualifying residents benefit from the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), which closes in 2026. The Council's online Retrofit Hub aims to help residents understand retrofit measures and signpost them to funding opportunities as they become available. Officers are also working with the GLA-led Warm Homes Local Delivery Consortium to promote the scheme and provide application details. The meeting also discussed the 'missing middle' households who are not eligible for grants and face high upfront costs, with the observation that it's not just about advice. We've been providing advice and hand-holding for years. And we know that's not enough.

Addressing Borough-Wide Emissions and Innovation

The committee proposed recommending to Mayor and Cabinet that the refreshed Climate Strategy should place a greater emphasis on Lewisham's role as a convener for addressing borough-wide emissions. This aligns with the observation that the Council has direct responsibility for only a relatively small proportion of borough emissions (~2%), while wider emissions depend on residents, businesses, landlords, developers, transport providers, energy networks and national policy. The report also mentions that the Council is working in partnership with community organisations and other boroughs to help combine different opportunities into a coherent offer, and specifically mentions working with South East London Community Energy and participating in forums at a national and regional level that promote decarbonisation and challenge new developments. The Lewisham Biodiversity Partnership is also highlighted as a key partnership for ecological governance.

The committee also recommended that the refreshed Climate Strategy should set out clearly how major programmes will be delivered in the context of declining or discontinued funding streams and identify possible external or innovative routes to investment and delivery. The report mentions that the Council has been able to make progress on retrofit for housing, schools and corporate buildings by aligning capital programmes with external funding sources such as the Social Housing Fund and Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund, but notes that the latter was discontinued in 2025. The Council also launched the Lewisham Climate Action Investment in 2023, enabling residents to invest money, which raised £659,957 from 612 investors to support projects like the Active Travel Fund. Furthermore, the report discusses exploring participatory budgeting as a route for community-led environmental action and mentions the Nature Towns and Cities Fund (£840,000) and Community Energy Fund as potential avenues for funding.

Adaptation and Resilience Measures

In response to recent heatwaves, the Council ran 'Exercise Helios' in April 2026 to test the impact of prolonged high temperatures on services and residents. The Greener Adaptive Lewisham theme in the Climate Action Plan includes Review and develop the Council's response to prolonged periods of high temperatures and other impacts of climate change. Specific measures mentioned include: developing business continuity arrangements, reviewing public health policies, and incorporating learnings into the new Climate Strategy. The report also notes that the Council has delivered projects to increase climate resilience, such as rain gardens and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in schools and parks, and is using data on air quality, flood risk, canopy cover, and deprivation to identify areas needing tree planting. The committee also proposed recommending that the refreshed Climate Strategy should place greater emphasis on adaption and resilience in light of recent heatwaves and the fast-evolving climate emergency.

Street Lighting and Wildlife Impact

The Council's Capital Strategy includes funding to upgrade street lights to LED. A Deed of Variation with the Special Purpose Vehicle for the street lighting PFI is being developed, with legal processes expected to complete later in 2026. Mobilisation for this project is anticipated to begin in April 2027. Regarding the impact on wildlife, when asked about the colouration of LEDs to minimize impact on wildlife, an officer stated, Well, I will have to come back to you. I don't have those details.

Public reports pack 09th-Sep-2026 19.00 Sustainable Development Select Committee