Local Area Energy Plans (LAEPs) provide a strong evidence base for net zero planning, but local authorities often face challenges turning these outputs into real, investible projects. Regen’s work with local authority stakeholders through Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living programme has shown that LAEPs can create real value by clarifying the scale of the challenge and convening the right people together – but in many cases further action is required to prepare for delivery.
Regen has recently worked with the Greater London Authority (GLA) on this issue. Through research and stakeholder engagement, we set out a practical process for bridging this gap – moving from modelled data to well-defined opportunities, clear delivery roles and coordinated area-based programmes, which is essential to moving net zero infrastructure projects forwards at pace and scale.
Clear project ideas are only useful when paired with clarity on how they might be delivered.
The process
Reviewing LAEP outputs and speaking to local authorities delivering low-carbon infrastructure showed local areas can often encounter a ‘cliff edge’ at the end of an energy planning process. This is in part down to the fact that, although LAEPs provide valuable evidence and projections, they do not always identify discrete project opportunities.
We outlined the need for a process that begins by translating LAEP insights and other datasets into high-level project opportunities and moves quickly to decision making about how a project will be structured, owned and delivered.
For example, decision makers should consider questions such as:
What is their risk appetite?
What is their delivery capacity?
Can strategic ambitions be met by procuring interventions from the private sector?
Is there ongoing work that could be coordinated with a net zero intervention?
Answers to these questions can then help to decide on an appropriate delivery model for a given project. This will help build a high-level portfolio of local opportunities, each with a proposed implementation route – moving away from modelling and towards tangible project opportunities.
Discussions like these are unlikely to be definitive at such an early stage. Nonetheless, clarity on how to deliver a project is essential for shaping a local area’s energy strategy, finance decisions, partnerships and procurement. Local decision makers may then wish to consider how area-based coordination mechanisms can help shape and sequence portfolios of work, realise economies of scale and minimise disruption through coordination of works.
Choosing a delivery approach
Local authorities need clarity on their role, capacity, risk appetite and governance structure before moving forward, especially given that existing early-stage area-based decarbonisation models have often relied on grant funding; attracting investment requires a clear articulation of how the opportunity will work, and not just from the perspective of the energy system.
Building on our previous research, and work by PwC for Innovate UK, we developed this thinking into a delivery model framework – high level enough to be usable for early-stage thinking, but specific enough to guide decision making. These vary in terms of the stake taken by the local authority, the private sector, and community organisations.
We also developed and tested a framework for down-selecting a delivery model: based on the characteristics of a given project opportunity and the local area’s capacity and priorities, can we narrow down workable approaches for further exploration?
Our framework for down-selecting a delivery model
Moving from LAEP data to project ideas
LAEPs contain technical data detailing pathways for an area to reach net zero. By combining LAEP outputs with other local resources (in London, this could include datasets such as the London Solar Opportunities Map and the London Heat Map) and national datasets, local authorities can begin to shape a LAEP pathway into tangible interventions.
During a workshop with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, using LAEP insights and the datasets mentioned above, we identified illustrative opportunities for rooftop solar, retrofit programmes, heat pumps and EV charging. We used these example projects to workshop potential roles for the borough and understand how this might vary depending on the scale of the opportunity, technology type, risk appetites and the desired level of community benefits.
Illustrative opportunities for projects and potential roles for the the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Why it's important to identify opportunities and delivery roles
Clear project ideas are only useful when paired with clarity on how they might be delivered. Delivery roles – whether the local authority acts as asset owner, enabler, partner or facilitator – determine risk, control, capacity requirements and the scope for community involvement. Early clarity on this not only supports more credible business cases but also helps attract private finance and align internal stakeholders. As our Tower Hamlets workshop showed, factors such as community engagement, coordination with maintenance cycles, political appetite and desired control all shape the appropriate delivery model.
Conclusions and next steps
Local authorities can often face a cliff edge in local energy planning after the delivery of a LAEP. This process sets out a pragmatic framework for developing evidence into area-based delivery: turning LAEP evidence into structured investible project pipelines and supporting local authorities to clarify their delivery roles and capacities. To discuss this research please email Andrew Barry or the GLA. You can also browse Regen’s local authority insights and publications here.
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We know that action at the local level is the cheapest and most effective way to deliver the benefits from net zero. Collaboration is vital to enabling this and delivering a transition that works for the needs of local people. Regen helps local authorities translate the distinct needs of their people and places into strategies that bring jobs, investment and resilience alongside decarbonisation. Click here to explore our membership options.
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