Summary

Preston City Council recognises the enormity of the challenges posed by climate change. At the same time, as an authority committed to inclusion and social justice, it believes that policies should be informed by a sense of shared responsibility and fairness if they are to deliver the consensus required for action at scale. The objective of the project was therefore to place fairness and the views of a representative group of residents centre stage in the process of defining the city’s climate strategy. 

"We face an enormous challenge. But as a council committed to inclusion and the wellbeing and resilience of all our communities, the question we asked the jury to consider in their deliberations placed fairness centre stage, as we believe that it is only by acting in a spirit of shared responsibility and solidarity that we can create the consensus for the scale of action needed to address the climate emergency."

Cllr Carol Henshaw, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, 2022 to 2025.

The problem 

Preston City Council declared a climate emergency in April 2019 and committed to developing an Action Plan to reach net zero emissions by 2030. Given the authority’s long-standing commitment to community wealth building and social justice, it was important that the Action Plan had a focus on inclusion and equality and was informed by the views of residents. 

To this end, in 2023 Council allocated a share of its UKSPF funding to commission Shared Future CIC to facilitate a climate jury in the city. A climate jury brings together a diverse group of members of the public to consider an aspect of climate change and produce a set of recommendations in response. 

Thirty residents were selected to join the jury via a process known as sortition. A third party was commissioned to send out letters to 5,000 households from randomly selected postcodes across the district inviting them to submit an expression of interest in participating in the jury. From the responses received, a selection was made to match the profile of the city’s residents, including variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, housing status, income etc. This process created a ‘mini-Preston’ that is a sample of the population which matched Preston’s demographic and socio-economic profile, ensuring that the jury was representative of the city. An advisory group made up of representatives from the city’s anchor institutions, the VCSF sector, local businesses and trade unions was established to monitor the process and agree a ‘deliberative question’ for the jury to consider, which was ‘How can we in Preston work together to address the opportunities and challenges of climate change in a way that is fair to everyone? The group also agreed to increase the representation of young people in the jury as they reasoned that younger generations would feel the impact of climate change more. ‍

The solution

The thirty members of the climate jury met early in 2024 for the first of ten sessions, six of which took place in the evening, and four over two Saturdays (morning and afternoon), thirty hours in total. Participants committed to attending all ten sessions and received a payment in acknowledgement of the time committed to the process, as well as travel expenses and childcare costs if required. 

After a first session in which jury members focussed on getting to know each and understanding their brief, two sessions introduced the science, causes and impacts of global warming. Speakers included Mike Berners-Lee and Kevin Andersen, national experts on the climate crisis who addressed the National Emergency Briefing in November 2025, and the former Chief Executive at the Environment Agency, John Curtin. These speakers were agreed by the Advisory Group and officers from the council’s Policy team were responsible for contacting them and confirming arrangements. 

The jury members themselves chose which topics they wished to explore in later sessions to understand the drivers of climate change in greater depth. The chosen topics were housing, transport and food production, and further speakers were invited by the Policy team to present on these topics. Speakers included council officers, academics, consultants, transport operators, NGOs and farming representatives. As well as hearing from the speakers, the jury had plenty of time at each session for discussion in small groups and in plenary sessions.

During their last two sessions the jury jointly developed a set of 24 recommendations in response to the deliberative question. They were then asked to provide preference scorings for each recommendation and the combined scores of the group provided an overall ranking. The highest-ranking recommendations focused on:

• Action on energy efficiency and domestic retrofit and the integration of renewable sources of energy into new residential and commercial developments; 
• Improvements to public transport, and particularly to local bus services, as well as measures to promote active travel in the city; 
• Local food production and procurement; and 
• Community engagement on climate change. 

The jury presented their recommendations to the city in May 2024 at an event at the University of Lancashire to which councillors, representatives of the city’s anchor institutions, community and faith groups, businesses and trade unions were invited. The recommendations were wide reaching, with some addressing national government and others the council and other local organisations. 

In August 2024 Council responded to the recommendations by approving a report and action plan which included commitments by those attending the May launch of the jury’s recommendations. A further report in June 2025 updated the Council on progress in delivering the plan and included relevant updates on national policy changes following the change of government in July 2024. A commitment to continue implementing the recommendations of the climate jury was included as Strategic Priority 2 in Preston City Council’s Climate Strategy and Action Plan, approved by Council in January 2026. The establishment of Preston’s Climate Forum in October 2025, which was proposed by the Cabinet Member for Climate Change and is hosted by the council, has provided a city-wide forum for joint working in Preston on climate action, including further action to implement the recommendations of the climate jury. Meetings are scheduled three times a year. 

Although the work of the jury formally concluded in May 2024, several members have remained engaged in follow up activity. They have attended meetings with officers and councillors at the council, including the Climate Forum, and in May 2025 worked with Climate Action Preston to hold a sustainability fair at Let’s Grow Preston’s Spring Fair. 

Timeline

An overview of the project timeline with dates, are as follows: 

• July 2022 - Climate jury included in PPC’s UKSPF investment plan.
• 2023 - UKSPF investment plan approved by government, procurement exercise undertaken to appoint an external facilitator, advisory group established and meets for the first time in October.
• Late 2023 – invitations to participate in climate jury sent to 5,000 Preston residents and applicants matched to Preston’s demographic profile to create a ‘mini-Preston’.
• February 2024 – First meeting of the climate jury. They meet for 10 sessions, 30 hours in total, finishing in March. 
• May 2024 – Climate jury launches their recommendations to the city at an event at the University of Lancashire. 
• August 2024 – Council approves an Action Plan in response to the climate jury’s recommendations. 
• June 2025 – report to Council to update progress on the delivery of the Action Plan.
• January 2026 - further action to implement the recommendations of the climate jury included as Strategic Priority 2 in Preston City Council’s Climate Strategy and Action Plan.

Stakeholders

Key stakeholders were the members of the climate jury themselves who represented the people of Preston. The advisory group comprised representatives from key Preston anchors (Lancashire County Council, the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), Preston College, housing associations), as well as community partners, representatives of Preston’s faith communities, business and trade union representatives as well as the NFU and Ribble Rivers Trust. The group was chaired by the Cabinet Member for Climate Change. 

Experts who provided information to the climate jury over the course of the 10 sessions included officers from Preston City Council, Lancashire County Council and Lancaster Council; and academics from UCLAN, Lancaster, Manchester, Edgehill and Leeds universities. The Shared Future team who facilitated the climate jury had recently run a climate jury in Blackburn with Darwen and this experience informed the approach in Preston. 

Members of the climate jury and the advisory group were invited to join Preston’s Climate Forum in October 2025.  This met for the second time in February 2026. 

Impact 

The impact of the climate jury cannot be measured in terms of direct emissions reductions. However, it has been a key mechanism for raising the profile of the climate crisis in Preston as well as for developing a strategy in response which foregrounds inclusion and fairness. This has provided a positive, local narrative at a time when climate policy is becoming politically polarised. 

Specific actions to progress the climate jury’s recommendations that have, or are being taken forward, by the council include exploring opportunities for increasing procurement of food by anchor organisations from local producers; extending UKSPF funding for skills to support the transition to low carbon technologies at Preston College and working with the senior leadership team to make the case for further funding when skills funding is devolved under the government’s devolution programme; developing an action pack for Lancashire schools on energy efficiency and low carbon technologies; making improvements to public and active travel infrastructure in the city; establishing a bus users group for the city; working in partnership with the county council to engage local residents in the roll out of the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund; supporting community action on climate, including the sustainability fair at Let’s Grow Preston’s Spring Fair and relaunching the Preston Green Pledge at the Encounter Arts Festival in September 2025. 

Lessons learned

The total cost of the project (excluding officer time) was £55,000. The project was commissioned and the project budget was estimated via a process of soft market engagement with companies that facilitate citizens’ juries and assemblies in the UK. Funding came from Preston’s allocation from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The project aligned with intervention E12 ‘Investment in schemes to support community involvement in decision making in local regeneration’ and was included in the UKSPF investment plan approved in Preston in July 2022. This was submitted to and approved by central government in December 2022.  

Next steps

Further action to implement the recommendations of the climate jury were included as Strategic Priority 2 in Preston City Council’s Climate Strategy and Action Plan in January 2026. Specific actions which the council is already delivering or developing include improved access to information on energy efficiency and retrofit; improvements to Preston’s bus shelters, access to secure bike storage in the city centre and investment in improved cycle routes within the city; improved management of the city’s allotments and a pilot project to increase local food procurement. The climate forum provides an opportunity for the council to continue working with local stakeholders on delivery of the recommendations.

A direct link to the report on Preston’s climate jury can be found here: Preston People's Climate Jury.

Information on the sessions, including some video recordings of the presentations by experts, can be found here: People's Climate Jury - Preston City Council/