The Suffolk Conservative Group has questioned Reform UK’s decision to “un-declare” the climate emergency adopted by Suffolk County Council in 2019, branding it “an empty gesture that achieves nothing for Suffolk” and highlighting that the council’s climate programme has cut energy bills by £4.8 million a year while placing Suffolk near the top of the national rankings for emissions reductions. While also pointing out the change to the council's energy tariff would have happened anyway, regardless of the local elections.
Councillor Richard Rout, Leader of the Suffolk Conservative Group, said:
"Reform UK's first instinct in Suffolk is to remove a few words from the minute book. Meanwhile, 11,730 coastal properties are at risk; our coastline is eroding faster than almost anywhere in Europe; and at Thorpeness, families have watched their homes demolished in recent months as the cliffs retreat beneath them. We are one of the driest counties in the country, where our farmers, the breadbasket of England, are already rationing irrigation water and watching their crops hang in the balance. We recorded one of the hottest days in Suffolk's history in the summer of 2022, with railway lines buckling and fields ablaze. You don't have to call it an 'emergency' to take it seriously, but you certainly shouldn't spend your first weeks in office pretending it's less serious than it is.
"I'll be candid: I seconded the 2019 declaration, and with hindsight, the fashion for declaring 'emergencies' was overdone. But if declaring it changed little, un-declaring it changes even less. This is reverse virtue-signalling, a symbolic act dressed up as decisive leadership, achieving precisely nothing.
"Where there is a serious argument about the cost of net zero and arbitrary targets, Suffolk answered it years ago. Our commitment was built on a 'spend to save' basis from the very start: every pound of investment had to pay for itself. The result is annual energy bills that are now £4.8 million lower than they would otherwise have been, emissions from the council's own operations cut by nearly half, and Suffolk ranked among the leading county councils in the country for carbon reductions. There is no waste here for Reform to cut; the programme makes money for the taxpayer. Removing the label doesn't remove that fact; it just throws away the credit.
"And let's be clear about Reform's headline 'saving'. The renewable electricity tariff was a fixed-term contract, always due for review when its term ended. They haven't discovered a saving; they've found a routine review point that was arriving anyway and dressed it up as decisive action, which would have happened irrespective of the local elections.
"By their own test, that a scheme must show clear benefits or real savings, the council's energy efficiency programme, which we refined in January of this year, passes comfortably. So what, precisely, are they cutting? The answer appears to be nothing."
During the Conservative administration, Suffolk County Council focused on practical measures that delivered measurable results. Strategic changes to heating controls at Endeavour House reduced gas consumption by more than 42%, while the council's first solar car park at Beacon House will save over £50,000 a year. Alongside wider investment in energy efficiency across council buildings, these measures reduced costs, cut emissions, and delivered real benefits for Suffolk residents and taxpayers. Conservatives believe these projects demonstrate that environmental responsibility and savings for taxpayers can go hand in hand.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- Savings and emissions figures are drawn from the council's own Net Zero Carbon Report 2024/25 (Cabinet, 27 January 2026). The report states that annual energy bills are £4.8 million lower than if electricity and gas consumption had remained at 2019/20 levels, and that emissions from the council's own operations (Scope 1 and 2) have fallen by 46% since 2019/20. Analysis in the report places Suffolk among the leading county councils for carbon reductions.
- During the previous administration, Suffolk County Council secured Government funding for a range of energy-efficiency and low-carbon projects, including work to increase the use of on-site solar generation at Endeavour House.
- Suffolk County Council is leading the development of a town-centre heat network in Ipswich, supported by £9.8 million of Government funding, to provide lower-carbon heating to major buildings.
- The figure of 11,730 coastal properties at risk is published by the Suffolk Resilience Forum (Suffolk Prepared), which states that more than 14,900 properties in Suffolk are at risk of flooding, of which approximately 11,730 are coastal.
- The council's electricity has been supplied on a fixed-term 100% renewable (REGO-backed) contract since 2022/23. Fixed-term energy contracts are subject to periodic review at the end of their term.
