LGC Investment Series Podcast · Local Government Chronicle

LGC Investment Seminar 2025 - How the net zero energy transition can make a local impact in your area

·33 min·2 clips

Tom Williams calls the energy transition “the industrial revolution of our time” and says Clean Power 2030 is only 95% electricity, not net zero.

Martin George opens from the LGC Investment Seminar in Carden Park, Cheshire. He frames two connected questions: how the transition to net zero becomes energy infrastructure investment, and how that investment can create positive local impact for the places around it. The episode treats both as central concerns for LGPS funds. It starts with the national 2050 net zero goal and the opportunities that goal creates, then moves to the harder question of how those opportunities are actually accessed and governed. The conversation stays practical rather than abstract. Laura and Tom talk through the need to link investment capital with local development activity. They point to chambers of commerce, councils, and other businesses as part of that network, and note that councils are already working through economic development and regeneration agendas. The challenge is not just spotting opportunity. It is connecting the people and institutions that need to speak to one another. The discussion does not pretend that is simple. It describes the work as time-consuming and difficult, and says those relationships have to be built through repeated contact. Tom then broadens the view to the role of investment managers. He argues that private-sector managers should come to pools and individual schemes with concrete propositions, clear capabilities, and a track record, rather than wait passively for demand. That keeps the focus on delivery and on fit with scheme policy. The episode stays measured throughout and keeps returning to the same practical question: how do net zero ambitions become investable, governable local realities with real public value attached?

As heard by us

A practical look at turning net zero ambition into local investment reality.

The episode takes a familiar policy goal, net zero transition, and brings it down to the local level for LGPS funds, councils, investors, and the communities meant to feel the payoff. That focus is the main strength here.

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If you want the local mechanics behind net zero investment, start here.

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