South West can lead our recovery from Covid-19
EXPERTS UNITE TO TALK ABOUT CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS ON THE ROAD TO NET ZERO
THE region can lead the way in developing a green economic recovery
Businesses, communities and policymakers in the South West must seize the challenge and find new ways of doing things if the region is to lead the way in developing a green economic recovery from Covid-19, an event hosted by Lloyds Banking Group has heard.
The discussion, ‘Green for growth - a sustainable recovery for the West’, was part of the Group’s ‘Big Conversation’ series, which is looking at the challenges, opportunities and critical areas of support needed to help the UK’s nations and regions to recover from the pandemic.
As we emerge from the Covid crisis, the region has an opportunity to make its recovery a green one. But Nick Sturge, Strategic adviser at Cheltenham Borough Council, highlighted some big challenges on the road to Net Zero.
He said: “One challenge is inertia, sticking to the way we have always done things. We can’t afford to wait to see if someone else has all the answers, we have to do things ourselves. But we are also seeing a fundamental challenge to the prosperity and wellbeing of people facing issues like unemployment and mental health.”
Anna Klimczak of United Communities Housing Association, said her challenge was to bring older properties run by her group up to an acceptable standard. There were many sustainable homes in the region, helping to grow its reputation as an environmental leader, but even within the housing association it would take around £80m to update homes - a major funding issue.
The point relating to retrofitting existing homes was emphasised by Phil Stott,
Head of Sustainability and Construction at
YTKO, when he highlighted that to meet the targets set for 2050 we will need to retrofit two homes per minute, which is a huge task.
Danielle Sinnett from the University of the West of England felt there was an opportunity for some impetus as the lockdown made people more aware of their own homes and their local areas. She also felt that there was an opportunity in what appears to be a greater awareness of the link between the health of the community and outside spaces.
John Chaplin of the Bristol Port Company said transport had to be at the top of the agenda for a green future. He said: ‘’Ports are multi-modal transport hubs, stuff arrives, gets stored in our transit warehouses and then goes out by truck or train. We are already doing what we can, but for the bigger picture, the governments and international organisations need to be looking at shipping and how ships can start to reduce their footprint.’’
The challenges faced by smaller businesses across the South West were highlighted by Sam Holliday from the Federation for Small Businesses. He said many were focused on survival, with little capacity to think about ‘building back better”.
“The pandemic priorities have kicked in and so many of the small businesses I’m dealing with are worried if they’re going to build back at all’’ he said.
Jon Reay, CEO and founder of Rewrite Digital argued that there would need to be commercial incentives to persuade people and businesses to look towards a green future when they had so many other day-to-day issues, as well as investment in the necessary skills and digital infrastructure.
Phil Stott of YTKO said it would be a huge challenge to get the environmental message out and for it to be treated as a priority, but acknowledged “it pays to be green”. He added it was the right thing to do from a marketing point of view and there was a real opportunity during the pandemic to “grasp the green nettle and go for it in a big way”.
Turning to some of the solutions to the difficulties of ‘greening’ the South-West economy, James Wilde, Head of Sustainability at Lloyds Banking Group said policy and leadership would be crucial.
“Policy will have a really key role, and the fact that the UK will be hosting the climate conference next year means there is a real space for us to lead by example,” he said.
“We have the opportunity to form the comprehensive set of policies required across the whole country to get to a Net Zero economy.”
He added that the UK’s leadership in Low Carbon Energy Generation and a target of 30gw of offshore wind by 2030 meant a lot of support was available for innovative solutions, alongside electric vehicles and the transport infrastructure - providing vital jobs as new technologies are rolled out and businesses are allowed to diversify.
That roadmap for progress - from need to innovation to growth - would demand even more collaboration and Nick Sturge said this part of the country had huge geographical benefits and scale but the collaboration needed to be put in place carefully so as not to dilute the potential.
“We must strive for a holistic approach rather than working within local authority silos,” he said.
“The health, finance and environmental benefits of major projects are sometimes so clear but the bigger advantage can be lost because of these boundaries.”
Teamwork and communication came through as key points in any plan to grow a green future for the region. Jeremy Hayward, Lloyds Banking Group’s Ambassador for the South West, summed up The Big Conversation by saying that while pandemic priorities meant it was always going to be a matter of ‘survival first’, there needed to be a way of getting past that so people appreciated the positive benefits of green growth.
“If we are going to seize those opportunities there is a real need to think differently - to pivot - and that is going to require leadership, collaboration and an understanding of behaviour to bring people with us in a new direction,” he said.
To find out more about The Big Conversation go to www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/ Our-Purpose/the-big-conversation-helpingbritain-recover/ and for more on Lloyds Banking Group go to www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/