Supporting a just transition

Wolverhampton

Working together as an anchor network can provide opportunities for tackling climate change and achieving net zero emissions. In Wolverhampton this has happened by looking at the role of brownfield land in providing renewable energy.

Wolverhampton City Council and Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust have developed an innovative proposal to turn publicly owned brownfield land into a solar farm, which will provide energy for New Cross Hospital and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Many anchor institution-owned land assets currently fail to provide benefit to local citizens and, in this case, the land was previously providing no financial or tangible gain to the place it is situated.

Alongside this, Wolverhampton Council are now working with Kuppa, a free digital tool which connects local residents with retrofit grants,  to support the development of a local retrofit industry by signposting users to local trades. The Black Country Anchor Network is supporting this development by working on a project that aims to increase the number of retrofit businesses in the Black Country, to ensure that retrofit opportunities stay local and benefit the local economy. Working with local authority business support teams and the Chamber of Commerce, the Black Country Anchor Network are connecting local businesses with organisations like Marches Energy Agency, who provide the accreditations needed to get onto retrofit public sector supply chains.