Southwark Labour Fail to Spend Any Money from £25m Climate Fund

Southwark Labour failed to spend any money from a £25m climate change emergency pot it created last year, Liberal Democrat research revealed on Friday.

In 2021, the council invested £25m in its capital programme budget toward the climate change emergency.

It planned to spread spending of the finances between 2021 and 2030, but internal Southwark Liberal Democrat enquiries revealed none of this money has been used or dedicated to any projects in almost a year.

This information emerged in follow-up data requests after an Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) meeting on Monday.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Victor Chamberlain asked Cllr Helen Dennis, cabinet member for Climate Emergency and Sustainable Development, about the funds at the OSC meeting.

She responded that announcements regarding what the priorities for the £25m will be were due soon.

Cllr Chamberlain, on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, made a formal recommendation regarding the capital programme budget at an OSC meeting on Tuesday.

This recommendation included requesting that cabinet publish this year’s targets on climate emergency spend from the capital programme before the May elections, in an attempt to speed up the council’s climate change action.

Commenting, Cllr Chamberlain, Vice-Chair of OSC, said:

“Southwark Labour do not understand that we have to act urgently to tackle the climate emergency and have relied on us to force them to go greener, faster. Spending on the emergency or dedicating money to relevant projects has to be an urgent priority and no-one can afford for the council to sit on large funds for years. That’s why we pushed the Labour administration to announce before the May elections how they will use this £25m this year.”