Creating better places

Practical resources for local innovation projects

Creating Better Places will grow to become a series of ten resource packs grounded in insights from the 52 local authorities that took part in the Net Zero Living Programme. It will be a resource for council officers who are driving local outcomes through clean energy and decarbonisation projects, as well as those working with them to support local growth.

The series is rooted in real-world evidence. It reveals the unique role local authorities play in building a local mandate, convening partners, enabling delivery, and shaping market conditions for change. And it shares how the Programme has provided specialist support along the way to reach these outcomes faster, and at scale.

Discover tools, insights and learnings from other councils

The introductory handbook opens the series by setting out where places have done things differently in familiar parts of local delivery. It shows that, when climate action is embedded well, it is a powerful lever to improve everyday outcomes for residents and support place-based renewal and resilient economic growth.

Each individual resource pack will then go deeper into one of the ten areas where local innovation can make delivery smoother and more investable. They will cover topics such as: putting people at the centre, building capacity, making governance work through change, enabling partnerships, collaborating regionally, using digital platforms, building investable pipelines, and supporting the supply chain and workforce.

The series, once complete, will bring together key concepts, learnings from other councils, tried-and-tested steps, practical tools, and further resources. Together, the series will help places avoid starting from scratch, speed up delivery, and achieve better outcomes more efficiently and effectively.

Key takeaways

• The Net Zero Living Programme offers real world evidence of how climate action can strengthen core local services when they are framed around outcomes that people value.
• By bringing together ten familiar areas of local delivery into bite-sized resource packs, this series gives local authorities the guidance and best practice they need to innovate, improve services, and open markets for growth.
• The handbook and resource packs bring together tested concepts, practical steps, and easy-to-use tools from the Programme so other places can avoid duplication and move faster.

Downloadable resources

Read the Creating Better Places introductory handbook and discover below the upcoming resource packs.

Resource packs coming soon:

1. Putting people at the centre of place-based change

2. Embedding net zero as an enabler of better services

3. Building local authority capacity

4. Governance to navigate political and institutional change

5. Enabling partnerships for place-based innovation

6. Regional collaboration to scale climate action

7. Digital platforms for collaboration

8. Building investable pipelines

9. Strengthening the supply chain and workforce

10. Models, approaches and tools ready for real-world scale