Recipient organisationPeterborough City CouncilSource-published name: Peterborough City Council
Funding£2.8M
PeriodMar 2024 — Feb 2026
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Peterborough City Council is building a digital system to help local authorities stop managing net-zero projects one at a time and instead run them as a coordinated portfolio. The problem is not a lack of technical solutions for cutting carbon—it is the non-technical barriers that stall progress. Councils face financial constraints, patchy local skills, uncertain funding, and weak market engagement. Tackling each project individually is too slow and does not scale. A feasibility study showed that councils need a way to manage many projects together, spreading risk and building internal capability. If PANZ succeeds, the digital system will let councils design, select, track, and accelerate net-zero projects across heat, electricity, and transport using a strong data framework. The council will test the system on two ambitious local carbon-reduction projects, working with communities, businesses, and public-sector organisations. The aim is to turn a local energy plan into real, large-scale action—not just in Peterborough, but as a replicable model for other councils across the UK.
View original technical description
Peterborough City Council is embarking on an innovative approach to manage and reduce non-technical barriers that are hampering the ability to deliver net-zero initiatives at scale and speed. At the heart of our net-zero strategy lies the implementation of an ambitious and comprehensive plan spanning heat, electricity, and transport. However, to translate the plan into real-life projects, the council must confront significant barriers. These challenges encompass financial constraints and limited capabilities to undertake a programme of this magnitude, gaps in local skills required, uncertainties regarding funding sources, and gaps in market awareness and engagement. An early feasibility study highlighted that addressing barriers on a project-by-project basis is neither scalable nor feasible. Instead, Peterborough must develop portfolio-wide capabilities to effectively tackle these obstacles as an integrated system. The study revealed the need for an innovative approach based on developing the capability to manage a strategic portfolio of projects, instead of using a project-by-project approach, as key to overcoming non-technical barriers and delivering the local area energy plan. This strategy diversifies risk, empowers the council, enhances ownership, provides flexibility, and promotes stakeholder engagement. It builds upon existing foundations while enabling a paradigm shift to drive local leadership. PANZ (Peterborough Accelerated Net Zero) is a programme aiming to develop a digital system that councils can use to design, manage and deliver net-zero projects. A strong data framework will serve as the foundation to facilitate the selection of net-zero projects and the development of action plans to support councils to deliver projects. The digital system will also allow councils to track progress and identify activities that could be undertaken to accelerate action across the portfolio. The programme also aims to use this framework in a couple of ambitious local carbon reduction projects. Central to the project is engagement with communities, residents, businesses and public sector organisations to drive adoption of low-carbon measures. This project represents a pioneering effort by Peterborough City Council to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future. By addressing non-technical barriers and leveraging data-driven tools, this initiative can create a transformative impact on the community and broader region and deliver lasting environmental, sustainability, social, and economic added value.
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