In yet another stinging rebuke to Labour’s virtue signalling agenda, the Barnet Council budget consultation for 2026/27 shows residents overwhelmingly rejecting “supporting residents to reduce their carbon footprint” as a priority, ranking it near the very bottom when forced to choose what matters most with limited resources.
The latest chart from the council’s own General Budget Consultation Report (published February 2026) asked residents to tick up to four services they think are most important to the wider community, given tight budgets and the need to protect the vulnerable. The results are brutal for Labour’s green crusade:
A measly 1% of Citizens’ Panel respondents and just 2% in the Public Consultation selected carbon footprint reduction as a top priority.
Community events and activities fared little better at 1% (Panel) and 5% (Public).
Even “nice to have” services like libraries (3% to 9%), regulatory services (7% to 6%), planning (2% to 6%), regeneration (6% to 4%), and council run leisure/sports (5% to 8%) got higher selections.
Compare that to the real concerns of Barnet families: while the chart focuses on low priorities, previous parts of the same consultation highlighted massive support for essentials like street cleaning (94%), refuse collection (91%), adult social care (89%), highways/roads/potholes (87%), and community safety (86%). Residents know what they want, practical fixes, not preachy environmental lectures.
Labour has poured endless resources into their net zero fantasy: declaring a climate emergency, pushing the BarNET ZERO campaign, targeting net zero by 2042, running citizens’ assemblies, and more. All while Barnet faces an £88 million budget black hole, soaring demands on social care and temporary housing, and crumbling roads that residents actually care about.
This isn’t just low priority, it’s rock bottom irrelevance. Only 1 to 2% think council time and money should go to personal carbon guilt trips when vulnerable residents need support and potholes need filling. It’s classic Labour detachment: chasing woke headlines while ignoring everyday hardships caused by their own economic failures under Starmer.
Barnet Conservatives have always fought for common sense priorities, protecting core services, cutting waste, and delivering value for taxpayers’ money. We’ve warned time and again about Labour’s obsession with trendy green schemes over fixing what’s broken.
The message from residents is unmistakable: stop the wasteful woke spending and focus on what matters, safe streets, reliable bins, cared for vulnerable, and yes, fixing those potholes!
It’s time to boot out Labour’s failed priorities and restore Conservative leadership that listens to Barnet people, not ideological fads.