Column by the deputy leader of Stroud District Council, Catherine Braun.

Supporting the transition to a green and fair economy is at the core of our new five-year plan for Stroud district, which will be presented for approval at the council meeting on October 21.

Our commitment to respond to the climate and nature emergency and to support local communities and businesses, drives all the projects in the new plan, and we recognise the need to work in partnership with others for delivery.

Training and skills will be an important area, to provide for the new green jobs of the future.

We’ll step up our work with partners to support investment in skills and training, particularly for energy efficiency improvements to buildings.

We recently committed to retrofit our 5,000 council homes to make them warmer and cheaper to heat, and we’ve set the highest energy efficiency standards for our new-build programme, which will also help to create new jobs.

Spending locally is another area of focus, as we know that money spent with a local supplier drives local investment, so we’re committing to increase the share of the council’s procurement from local businesses.

Community engagement is a key theme of the plan, to ensure that the voice of the community is at the heart of council priorities.

Our community-focused work will include actions to improve physical and mental health, to develop new leisure and wellbeing services and increase and improve the playing pitches, play areas and outside spaces in the district.

For climate and biodiversity, the council plan sets out numerous actions, including tree planting, renewable energy generation, walking and cycling and improving opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle resources.

There’s lots more in the plan, but even so it doesn’t cover all areas of the council’s work – and we’ll continue to assess and improve delivery of other services across the district.

Details of the draft can be found on the Council meeting page at: bit.ly/3lx6hnS