There has been much wailing in the environmental sector about the success of Reform UK in the recent local elections given the party’s loud anti-Net Zero rhetoric. At the time, I predicted that the bark would be worse than the bite – that once newly elected Reform representatives learnt what the Net Zero agenda actually means for their area, there would be a considerable amount of reverse-ferreting. So far, I have counted three (or maybe two and a half) substantial examples:

First up, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, former Tory MP and now Reform UK Mayor of Lincolnshire. When pressed on whether she wanted to see more or less low carbon investment in Lincolnshire on LBC, she interrupted her anti-Net Zero rant to say “Well, I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” And true to those words, she recently backed the Humber Freeport project – “a renewables hub” – in her county. I don’t know whether her stepping down from the board of the Net Zero Watch junktank is related…

Secondly, former Olympic champion boxer and now Reform UK Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, Luke Campbell, announced a bid for £1.6m for renewable energy projects, saying “I have consistently supported the region in green energy for local business, creating local jobs. I will keep on that same track” adding he was above “party politics” – a rather damning snub of his colleagues’ position.

Lastly, former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe (now independent after a spat), took to social media to proclaim the benefits a new RWE offshore wind base would bring to his Great Yarmouth constituency. When elected for Reform, it turned out Mr Lowe had installed solar panels at his farm to save money – you know, those ‘woke’ abominations which are driving the country to the economic brink…

I still wait to see what happens in local authorities as Reform UK tries to insert its apparently one-man DOGE team into town halls to find all the ‘waste’ they claim no-one else can see. Early results are, erm, interesting – across the 10 Councils Reform now control, they removed all the Low Traffic Neighbourhood projects they could find – ie none. There was a kerfuffle when Lincolnshire County Council merged their flooding committee into the environment committee, but it appears that is more of a bit of deckchair reshuffling rather than outright denial of the threat.

Maybe they should consider the fate of the original US DOGE which has been abandoned by its instigator, and which many believe is going to end up costing more than the relatively modest amount it claims to have ‘saved’. But I still believe there will be pennies dropping when their officials ask them whether they want to cut the home insulation projects and let grannies freeze, or the EV charger roll out projects and put off EV-owning visitors, or the solar panels to cut civic energy bills? Which is it to be, Councillor?

[Update 9/6/25: since writing this, I listened to an interview with Rupert Lowe on the Spectator podcast. It turns out he is quite a fan of clean energy and has investments in heat pumps and battery storage. He cites the announcement of anti-Net Zero policies by Reform’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice as causing one of the rows that led to his departure.]