The campaign is about demonstrating the importance of local authority leadership on environmental issues – and demonstrating what leadership can achieve.

All aspects of environmental management – energy & climate change, waste and material resources, streetscene & public space, air quality, soil, biodiversity, water – are managed in a fragmented way, even though they are inextricably linked to one another.

This is a lost opportunity. Local authorities are the only organisations which can join-up environmental management locally in a meaningful way, link it to wider priorities through the Local Strategic Partnership, and actually make a difference.

Greening campaigns are popular, underpin wider objectives and save the council money. The Local Government Association's local government reputation campaign has highlighted the fact that paying more attention to ‘clean and green’ issues can improve the public’s perception of local authorities quite markedly.

There is an opportunity for Local Authorities to take the lead in joining up environmental management, from climate change and waste to public space and water quality. This will enable more integrated service delivery, with local authorities enhancing strategic links.

This campaign kit is aimed at local authority elected members or officers who are interested in developing a campaign to improve their local environment and is made up of 12 leaflets which can help plan and implement a local greening our community campaign. Key messages are that local government is pivotal to improving our environment:

The campaign is about establishing more and better organised support for local authorities on environment issues, a more relevant performance policy framework, which recognises the pivotal role local authorities play in leading environmental improvement and creating a step change in the financial support available for environmental services.

The aim is for Local Authorities to take a leadership role – they will have existing strategic links and can bring economies of scale. Findings so far indicate that there is a variety of good practice, where local authorities have taken the lead and delivered real results.

Local Government Association
info@lga.gov.uk

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Local Government Association

research

Urban Policy > Urban environment

Environmental sustainability