← council-level findings on this theme
17 Jun 2025Leicestershire delivered its statutory Local Nature Recovery Strategy on schedule rather than delaying or deprioritising it: as the designated 'responsible authority' with a statutory duty to produce an LNRS, the County Council approved the LNRS for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland at its full Council meeting on 2 July 2025 (moved by Mr Tilbury, seconded by Mr Whitford, carried unanimously), having commended the Strategy at Cabinet on 17 June 2025. [1][2]
15 Jul 2025On 15 July 2025 Leicestershire County Council's Cabinet, on a report of the Director of Environment and Transport and at the request of the Leader of the Council, approved a 'Proposal to Re-prioritise Net Zero Action Plans' (a KEY DECISION): it reallocated the £2m earmarked carbon-reduction reserve to flooding mitigation and severe-weather adaptation, and changed the focus of the Net Zero Action Plan away from carbon reduction to climate adaptation, projects delivering financial savings, and other benefits — members commenting that if investment continued to be made in Net Zero it would be difficult to see the impact on the climate. [3][4][5][6]
15 Jul 2025Leicestershire's Cabinet (Reform-led) on 15 July 2025 approved, as a Key Decision within the Additional Highways and Transport Funding Awards 2025/26 report, a proposed delay to delivery of the Parade, Oadby Cycle Optimised Protected Signals (CYCLOPS) active-travel scheme to allow redesign following public consultation and engagement with Active Travel England; the recorded rationale was to keep the funding applied to a revised scheme responding to community and safety concerns, with the Local Highway Authority stating it remained committed to promoting active and sustainable travel. [7][8]
11 Nov 2025The same Tree Management Strategy report noted a DEFRA-funded scheme supporting orchards in schools had had its progress slowed by a lack of funding, but the Committee was told plans were in place to restart it using nursery tree stock -- a funding-driven slowdown of one sub-scheme, not an abandonment of the Council's tree-planting programme or target. [9]
18 Feb 2026As of the 18 February 2026 full Council meeting, the Council Leader's position statement under Standing Order 8 still listed 'One million trees' as a live programme, alongside flooding prevention and other priorities, indicating the tree-planting programme had not been dropped. [10]
9 Mar 2026Leicestershire continued to meet its strengthened statutory biodiversity duty: on 9 March 2026 the Environment, Flooding, Climate Change and Waste Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered and welcomed the draft Biodiversity Report required under the Environment Act 2021, and officers advised — in response to a member's concern that Government growth proposals might undermine biodiversity work — that the ongoing programme of environmental legislation meant these responsibilities would continue for the foreseeable future. [11][12]
9 Mar 2026A March 2026 Environment, Flooding and Climate Change Overview and Scrutiny Committee performance report recorded that Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) funding had been received and used to install 45 new public charging points across Leicestershire, confirming continued rollout rather than any pause, cancellation or hand-back of the funding. [13]
26 May 2026Leicestershire County Council, an upper-tier authority, does not itself make the housing Local Plan that sets new-development energy-efficiency standards; that remit sits with its constituent boroughs/districts (Melton, Harborough, Charnwood, Hinckley & Bosworth, Oadby & Wigston, etc.), with the County Council's Cabinet role limited to formally responding as Duty-to-Cooperate consultee to those councils' Regulation 18/19 Local Plan consultations. On 26 May 2026 the Cabinet resolved that it is for Oadby & Wigston Borough Council, not the County, to demonstrate to the Planning Inspectorate that its Local Plan is soundly prepared on housing need, and recorded that the County 'does not intend to do any work of its own' on the district's housing-need evidence -- confirming Leicestershire CC has no housing Local Plan of its own in which to remove, dilute or decline energy-efficiency standards. [14][15]
Leicestershire County Council Pension Fund (Local Pension Committee, 9 December 2024) told a scheme member, in reply to a question about fossil-fuel stranded-asset risk, that it does not pursue outright fossil-fuel divestment: as a 'universal investor' it holds that divesting would only pass ownership of fossil-fuel holdings to less-responsible investors rather than reduce climate risk, so it instead reduces exposure via asset-allocation choices (e.g. a Low Carbon Transition fund) and delegates day-to-day fossil-fuel investment decisions to specialist managers. This is a restated, unchanged investment position (against a backdrop of the Fund reporting it had already exceeded its 2030 interim net-zero targets) rather than a new weakening decision. [16]
At the Local Pension Board on 3 September 2025, a Member raised concern that the Fund's net-zero approach involved shareholder activism, sector divestment and investment 'driven by ideology rather than financial return', and asked how the approach could be re-evaluated toward maximising returns. Officers replied that climate/responsible-investment strategy sat with the Local Pension Committee and that a review (including member consultation) was already underway, with the Fund's fiduciary duty to maximise returns 'whilst managing risks associated with climate and responsible investment in a balanced way' reaffirmed rather than any target or policy being loosened at that meeting. [17][18][19]
Leicestershire County Council's Environment, Climate & Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Sept 2025) noted that the Council was proceeding with, not pausing, its LEVI-funded public EV charging rollout: it was installing its first on-street EV charging points on the public highway using LEVI funding, with the current model to support further expansion of county-wide EV charging infrastructure. [20]
Leicestershire County Council's tree planting programme continued rather than being cut: at the Environment, Flooding, Climate Change and Waste Overview and Scrutiny Committee (11 Nov 2025), the Lead Member for Environment and Flooding said the Council would give away free trees as the planting season approached, and the Committee noted the Council's tree nursery was developing with its first batch of trees ready for planting that year for Ash Dieback replanting and highway schemes. [21]
No evidence was found in Leicestershire County Council's published minutes of declining, handing back, or materially underspending retrofit / building-decarbonisation grant funding; on the contrary, the corpus shows the Council actively bidding for and delivering such schemes (Warm Homes: Local Grant, Home Upgrade Grant, Sustainable Warmth Competition), which does not count toward the rollback figure. [22][23]
Leicestershire County Council (Reform-led administration, Leader D Harrison) has not cut its Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) or zero-emission bus commitments: in a written answer to Full Council, Cabinet member Mr Tilbury said the council had commissioned a feasibility study into bus franchising and had used BSIP grant funding over the prior 12 months to review and re-design 80% of the county's bus network, expanding demand-responsive services rather than scaling delivery back. [24][25]
At the 18 February 2026 Full Council budget (MTFS 2026/27) meeting, Leicestershire County Council carried (52 for, none against) a Conservative amendment adding new growth funding of GBP120,000 in both 2026/27 and 2027/28 as 'additional investment in public bus subsidies' — an increase, not a cut, to bus subsidy funding. [26][27]