Why might two different local authorities have a vastly different impact when it comes to regional energy planning? Capacity – staff, funding, or access to technical expertise – is only half the answer. What makes the difference is capability: that is, what organisations can do with the resources available to them.

This project, delivered alongside the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford through UKERC, explores what capabilities local and regional authorities need to participate effectively in Regional Energy Strategic Planning – and how governance can help strengthen rather than strain those capabilities.

What is Regional Energy Strategic Planning?

Regional Energy Strategic Planning (RESP) is a new approach to coordinating energy system planning across Britain. It’s intended to bridge the gap between national energy objectives and local delivery by creating place-based plans that help coordinate investment, infrastructure and future energy needs across our nations and regions.

Whilst RESP has the potential to support more joined-up planning, as a new governance arrangement being developed at pace, questions remain about how it will interact with existing local plans, how different organisations will contribute and what knowledge will be used in decision-making.

Because RESP is still emerging, it provides a unique opportunity to explore these questions in real time and understand how governance arrangements and structures can shape participation, capability and place-based delivery.

Understanding and strengthening capability

The project will explore three connected questions:

1. How are RESP governance arrangements being developed and how do they interact with existing heat and energy planning processes?
2. How do different stakeholders participate in regional planning processes, and whose voices and knowledge are included?
3. What capabilities do local and regional authorities need to contribute effectively, and how can these capabilities be strengthened over time?

The Centre for Sustainable Energy is leading the work on the third question. To do this, we will:

• Review existing evidence on local authority capabilities and developing an emerging capabilities framework.
• Convene a roundtable of local authority practitioners across Britain to test and validate the framework.
• Undertake two rounds of interviews with local stakeholders to understand capabilities in practice and explore how RESP affects them over time.
• Publish a series of blogs, briefings and practical insights to share learning throughout the project.

Developing a capabilities framework

A key output of the project is the development and testing of a capabilities framework. Rather than focusing solely on capacity and resources, the framework will explore how organisations:

• Identify emerging opportunities and challenges.
• Build partnerships and mobilise resources.
• Learn, adapt and respond to changing governance and policy environments.

The resulting framework will provide both a research tool and a practical resource, helping policymakers, regional bodies and local authorities understand where capability already exists, where gaps remain and how support can be targeted most effectively.

Why this work matters

Local and regional authorities are playing an increasingly important role in the transition to net zero. Across Britain they are developing local energy plans, coordinating a diverse range of stakeholders, supporting heat decarbonisation and influencing infrastructure investment. Approaches such as RESP are likely to increase the importance of these roles further.

However, capabilities, resources and responsibilities vary significantly between authorities and, while expectations continue to grow, investment hasn’t always kept pace. While some authorities have established energy teams and extensive experience, others face significant constraints.

Working closely with practitioners, policymakers and National Energy System Operator as regional energy planning continues to develop, the project will use RESP to test and understand how governance arrangements can help to build – rather than unintentionally strain – local capabilities.