Future Ready: Building the conditions for local net zero delivery

Insights for local authorities

Local authorities are central to achieving net zero, but delivery is often held back by pressures that are not only technical. Stretched capacity, unclear roles, fragmented ownership, short-term funding, limited data capability and weak project pipelines can all make it difficult to turn local climate plans into funded, governed and practical action.

The Future Ready Service was created through Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living Programme to help places work through these barriers together. It supported local authority officers and delivery partners involved in Pathfinder Demonstrator, Pathfinder Place and Fast Follower projects. By working as a cohort-based community of practice, participants could compare live delivery challenges, share practical solutions, build trusted relationships and avoid each place having to solve the same problems alone. Across the whole cohort, regardless of geography or project focus, the service combined mentoring, knowledge exchange, peer learning, system change training, structured reflection and expert technical support focused on non-technological barriers to decarbonisation.

The report shows that support worked best when it was practical, relationship-based and linked to live delivery challenges. Participants placed high value on in-person gatherings, mentoring, small-group discussion and trusted peer exchange. These formats helped officers test ideas, learn from other places and apply learning in their own local context.

The strongest reported effects were increased confidence, capability, collaboration and early changes in practice. Participants used the support to strengthen internal alignment, develop new partnerships, improve governance and investment thinking, and make delivery routes clearer.

Across the programme, six recurring themes emerged: framing net zero as the route to better local outcomes; strengthening governance and leadership; improving cross-departmental and cross-organisational collaboration; building internal capacity and supply chain capability; making data and tools useful for decision-making; and developing clearer project pipelines, practical models and market confidence.

The report concludes that future programmes should focus less on isolated interventions and more on the conditions that help places deliver. This means starting with what people value, building shared ownership, aligning internal systems, developing practical delivery capability and making progress visible.

Key findings

• Local net zero support works best when mentoring, peer learning, technical assistance, insights and action learning reinforce one another.
• Places made more progress when net zero was framed through local priorities and supported by clearer governance, collaboration, capability, data and project pipelines.
• Future programmes should invest in trusted relationships, practical support and visible delivery routes that help councils turn plans into funded, governed and operational projects.