Net zero by 2050: North Northamptonshire publishes its Local Area Energy Plan

North Northamptonshire Council has published its Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP), developed by Urban Foresight. It is the first LAEP completed by a local authority in the South Midlands and sets out a costed, place-specific route to net zero by 2050.

The plan answers a question that few growing areas have yet tackled in detail: how do you cut emissions sharply while continuing to support high economic growth?

North Northamptonshire sits within the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, a region contributing more than 7% of UK GDP.  It is one of the fastest growing local authority areas in the country, with economic activity shaping energy demand and consumption behaviour.

What the plan sets out

The headline target is a reduction in energy-related emissions from 774 ktCO₂e today to 33 ktCO₂e by 2050, a reduction of 97%. Reaching it depends on coordinated change across the whole energy system, sequenced over 25 years.

By 2050, the plan anticipates 120,700 domestic heat pumps and 9,300 commercial heat pumps installed across the area. Around 22% of homes will have rooftop solar. Almost all road transport will be electric, supported by 100,000 home chargepoints and 8,200 public chargepoints. Total annual energy consumption is expected to fall by 45%, with 92% of remaining demand met by electricity.

The benefits extend well beyond carbon. Modelling shows:

• an annual saving of close to £100 million in local energy spending
• around £3.8 billion in cumulative health and air quality benefits
• 3,800 new skilled jobs in retrofit, renewables and EV infrastructure
• every £1 invested in domestic energy efficiency saves an estimated £0.425 in NHS costs

Place-led, not technology-led

A defining feature of the plan is its focus on where action is needed first. Priority Focus Zones map neighbourhoods where low energy efficiency, fuel poverty and deprivation overlap, so that investment is targeted to households who stand to benefit most. Around 16,000 households in North Northamptonshire are currently in fuel poverty – more than one in ten.

Urban Foresight developed four pathways for the Council to consider, ranging from business-as-usual to two accelerated routes aimed at net zero by 2041. Following technical analysis and stakeholder engagement, the Council selected a pathway aligned with the Climate Change Committee’s recommended trajectory: technically proven, deliverable with today’s supply chains, and able to be sequenced without overloading households or the grid.

Built with the system, for the system

The plan was shaped with the organisations that will need to deliver it. An Advisory Group of network operators – National Grid Electricity Distribution, UK Power Networks, Cadent and the National Energy System Operator – met at key milestones to test assumptions and align the plan with future infrastructure investment. Secondary engagement brought in industry representatives, community energy groups, and town and parish councils.

This matters because LAEPs are increasingly used by network operators to plan investment. North Northamptonshire’s plan will feed into the new Regional Energy Strategic Plan for Central England.

A roadmap, not a wish list

The plan closes with 14 sequenced actions across building retrofit, enabling policy, grid and generation, and transport. Each is costed and assigned to the partners best placed to deliver it, with clear near-term priorities and longer-term interventions.

“What makes this plan distinctive is that it doesn’t stop at modelling,” said Anneliese Allen-Norris, Project Manager at Urban Foresight. “It sets out a sequenced, costed roadmap that the Council and its partners can act on now, while keeping the long-term ambition firmly in view.”

Read the full plan, explore the project case study, or get in touch to discuss energy planning for your place.