Valuing and monetising outcomes in local net zero projects

A practical guide for local authorities

When a council invests in active travel, home retrofit, or clean energy, it also creates cleaner air, healthier residents, safer streets, and more resilient communities. Wider outcomes like this can often go unmeasured, meaning the full value of local investment gets missed in business cases and funding bids.

This report from the Net Zero Living Programme gives local authorities practical methods for identifying and valuing these outcomes and, where possible, converting them into further investment. The guidance is divided into two distinct areas:

• How to value an outcome, by giving it a monetary figure for appraisal purposes.
• How to monetise an outcome, by turning that value into a revenue stream.

The guide brings together tools such as cost-benefit analysis, social return on investment, and wellbeing metrics, and shows councils how they can use them to make a fuller economic case for climate action.

The tools are supported with real-world examples that show what this looks like in practice, including a retrofit programme in Sunderland that cut GP appointments by 60% and attracted NHS funding; a nature-based flood project in Devon that secured £96,000 a year from Network Rail; and London’s clean air zone, which raised over £10.8 million in charges while cutting harmful emissions.

The report also introduces the idea of “outcome buyers” which are organisations in the public and private sectors that benefit financially when local projects succeed. These could be health authorities, housing associations, insurers, and employers. The advice suggests that identifying them should be the first step local authorities take to unlocking new sources of finance.

Key findings

• If local authorities can get better at identifying outcomes from net zero projects, such as improved health, cleaner air, and flood protection, then they will make stronger cases, attract broader investment, and deliver greater public value from each pound spent.
• Councils that reframe projects around the interests of outcome buyers (like health bodies, insurers, and housing associations) will find it easier to attract investment from organisations that directly benefit from improved local conditions.
• Local authorities should invest in robust monitoring and data collection. Being able to evidence the outcomes will help unlock new revenue streams or long-term funding partnerships.