Methodology and data sources for Near You

Read the methodology and data sources for our Near You local data tool.

22 Sep 2025

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The data analysis described below covers local authorities, Westminster constituencies and mayoral regions across England and Wales, unless specified otherwise. Mayoral region data is based on the local authority data within each region. Data sources are presented alongside the relevant section of methodology.

What people think about the environment

Local authority opinion polling on climate change and renewable energy

Opinion data on people worried by climate change, people who think climate change should be a priority for the government and people who support the use of renewable energy are from the UK climate opinion maps produced by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Data was provided to Friends of the Earth by the authors.

  • Gillreath-Brown, A., Goddard, E., Jefferson, M., Richards, E., Carman, J., Rosenthal, S., Leiserowitz, A. and J.R. Marlon. UK climate opinion maps. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. New Haven, CT, 2025.

Constituency opinion polling on climate change, nature and onshore wind

We downloaded opinion data from the Local Intelligence Hub on topics covering attitudes to climate change, nature, the environment and onshore wind energy. These showed the percentage of people in each constituency that supported or agreed with a selection of issues. The Local Intelligence Hub data comes from a variety of sources.

Climate and energy

Climate and energy: warmer homes

Climate emissions from homes

Total greenhouse gas emissions from homes are taken from local authority and regional greenhouse gas emissions statistics published by the UK government. We’ve estimated emissions at the constituency level using a postcode-based local authority to constituency lookup.

EPC band D or below

EPC C is regarded as well insulated and aligns with energy-efficiency and fuel-poverty targets, so homes below this standard are unnecessarily inefficient and need improvements.

We used address-level Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data to identify the number of domestic properties by EPC band in each postcode across England and Wales. The postcode data is then aggregated up to higher levels of geography to calculate the numbers of homes insulated to an EPC band D rating or below.

In conducting this analysis, we’ve ensured only the most recent EPC is used for each dwelling, eliminating any duplicate EPCs. In addition, not all homes have EPC records. To account for this, we’ve applied the percentage of homes rated EPC band D or below from the properties with EPCs to the total number of homes. This allows us to estimate the number of all homes that are in EPC band D or below for all levels of geography.

Fuel poverty

The UK government publishes data on fuel poverty in England by local authority and constituency. There are currently no up-to-date figures for Wales, so we haven’t included them. Note that the definition of fuel poverty is different in England and Wales.

Climate and energy: cleaner air

Climate emissions from transport

Total greenhouse gas emissions from transport are taken from local authority and regional greenhouse gas emissions statistics published by the UK government. We’ve estimated emissions at the constituency level using a postcode-based local authority to constituency lookup.

Air pollution

Modelled background air pollution data for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5), published by Defra at 1 km2 resolution, were aggregated to Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) using area weighting and compared with the World Health Organization (WHO) 2021 air quality guidelines.

In England, we've identified areas with dirty air as being where either NO2 or PM2.5 were above WHO guidelines. In Wales, we've presented the pollutants separately as Friends of the Earth Cymru is campaigning for a specific NO2 target.

For our full story, analysis and methodology on this work, see: Which neighbourhoods have the worst air pollution?

Respiratory disease

The House of Commons Library publishes regular data on health statistics, showing the prevalence of a range of health conditions in each constituency. From this, we selected data on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to show the percentage of the population with these conditions. Data was available for England only.

Bus service decline

Bus service analysis was conducted alongside the University of Leeds, which processed annual public transport timetables to compute bus service frequency — expressed as trips per hour — in each LSOA and local authority across England and Wales for every year between 2006 and 2023. We then compared bus service frequency in 2010 (our baseline year) with a 2023 snapshot to highlight changes — particularly declines — in bus service frequency across England and Wales over that period.

LSOA data were aggregated to constituency-level data, calculating the average change across LSOAs in each location. For further details on this analysis, see: How Britain’s bus services have drastically declined

Households without access to a car

Car ownership statistics use 2021 Census data on car or van availability and summarise the number of households that don’t own or have access to a private vehicle. Local authority data can be downloaded directly. Constituency data was derived from LSOA 2021 data using a LSOA to constituency lookup based on the distribution of postcodes.

Electric vehicle (EV) chargers

Data on EV charging points is published by the Department for Transport. The UK electric vehicle infrastructure strategy has set a national target of 300,000 public EV charging points by 2030. Friends of the Earth supports this recommendation. We've used this national figure to estimate the number of chargers required for every 1,000 people and to derive a local target based on the local population.

Possible commuter journeys by bike, including increased use of e-bikes

Estimates for potential bike use — including accounting for the increased use of electric bikes — come from the Propensity to Cycle Tool.

Current commuter journeys by bike

The data on the proportion of commuting journeys made by public transport, cycling or walking is from the 2011 Census. This is the most recent dataset available for every local authority. The data is unlikely to have changed significantly since 2011 and may even be worse given cuts to buses have reduced bus passenger miles in most locations.

Climate and energy: cheaper energy

Potential additional onshore renewable energy

Priority areas for future onshore renewable energy installations across England were identified by applying a series of exclusion criteria — covering infrastructure, environmental protections and other land-use constraints — to narrow down suitable areas. Because solar and onshore wind face different constraints, we assessed them separately using guidance from the Centre for Sustainable Energy and our in-house planning expert.

After applying constraints, we estimated capacity and approximate annual generation by multiplying suitable land by technology-specific factors. Where land was suitable for both we prioritised wind, although solar could be chosen instead or co-located with wind.

Data on current levels of renewable energy generated in each local authority were taken from the latest UK government data on Regional Renewable Statistics. 

The ratio of potential additional onshore renewable energy generation was calculated by dividing the estimated total future potential generation by the current generation from onshore wind and solar. The analysis and data covered England only.

More information and a more detailed methodology can be found here: How England can produce more onshore renewable energy fast

  • Current renewable energy: Renewable electricity by local authority, 2014 to 2023. Regional Renewable Statistics. Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Updated 2024.

Nature

Nature: greener spaces

Access to green space

The 2025 Greenspace Infrastructure Framework by Natural England reports the amount of accessible green space for various levels of geography, including local authority and LSOA neighbourhoods. It covers England only. We used the local authority data directly and aggregated LSOA data to constituencies to calculate the total amount of green space per person in each area. We then divided areas into 3 equal groups, labelling the top third as having good access to green space and the bottom third as having poor access to green space.

People and properties at risk of flooding (England)

Data on flooding risk to people and properties by local authority and constituency is published directly by the Environment Agency. This data comes from 2 different sources covering flooding from rivers and seas and flooding from surface water (ie flash flooding). In some cases, there will be an overlap between the 2 types of flooding risk. Adding the numbers from both types of flooding would risk double counting, so the statistics are presented separately.

People at risk of flooding (Wales)

In Wales, the numbers of people at risk of flooding are published by water catchment area only. These don’t align directly with local authority or constituency boundaries, so bespoke lookups were used to allow us to re-apportion the numbers from water catchment areas to administrative and electoral boundaries. As such, flooding risk data points in Wales should be considered an estimation.

  • Rivers and seas: National Flood Risk Maps - NRW National Flood Risk (Sea: People; Rivers: People). National Flood Risk Maps. Natural Resources Wales. 2020.
  • Surface water: National Flood Risk Maps - NRW National Flood Risk (Surface Water and Small Watercourses: People). National Flood Risk Maps. Natural Resources Wales. 2020.

Heatwave exposure and high-risk neighbourhoods

In summer 2022, the UK had 3 heatwaves. To assess the nationwide impacts, we analysed land surface temperature (LST) data and complemented this with Met Office modelled air temperatures for June–August 2022, identifying the highest 3-day-average daytime temperatures for each Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA).

For more information and a more detailed methodology, see: Which neighbourhoods are most vulnerable to heatwaves

Tree canopy cover

Summer tree canopy cover was calculated by mapping experts Terra Sulis on behalf of Friends of the Earth using newly available Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) imaging of England. No data is available for Wales.

The analysis identified lone trees and street trees as well as groups of trees and woodlands, using 1 m2 resolution data. The analysis showed that tree canopy covers 13% of England. Woodland cover across the EU is 38%.

For more information and a more detailed methodology, see: Mapping English tree cover: results, ranking and methodology

Nature: cleaner water

Sewage storm overflows (number, spills and duration)

There are approximately 14,000 storm overflow locations across England and Wales, which can discharge raw sewage into waterways. These are intended for when the sewage system is overwhelmed after heavy rain, but they often discharge untreated wastewater directly into rivers and streams at other times too. The Rivers Trust provides the location and 2024 overflow data for each site. We used this to identify the number of sites and the total number and duration of spills from all outlets in each local authority, constituency and mayoral region.

Nature: less waste

Household waste recycling rate

UK government data was used for current levels of household waste reuse, recycling and composting for English local authorities, and data from StatsWales was used for Welsh local authorities. Data isn’t available at the constituency level.

The Climate Change Committee has said that 68% of waste should be reused, recycled or composted by 2030. The Welsh Government has a target of 70% by 2025 and zero waste by 2050, but it doesn’t have a 2030 target. Friends of the Earth recommends a stretch target of zero waste/ 100% reuse, recycling and composting by 2030, recognising that this would also require significant government action on issues such as product design as well as funding.

Jobs and the economy

Green jobs

The numbers of green jobs were taken from analysis conducted by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), with data provided to Friends of the Earth by the authors. Data is only available at the constituency level.

Aggregating small-area statistics to Westminster constituencies

Several of the data points presented in the Near You tool at the constituency level are based on small-area data (eg LSOA or MSOA level), which have been aggregated to the constituency level. Sometimes these small areas will straddle 2 or more constituencies. To solve this issue, we produced 2 types of lookup tables:

  • Area-based lookups, where each dataset is weighted by the proportion of the neighbourhood area in each constituency. This method was used for area-based input data (eg tree cover data).
  • Postcode-based lookups, where each dataset is weighted by the proportion of neighbourhood postcodes in each constituency. This method was used for demographic data. 

To produce the lookups, we identified what proportion of each small geographical area "sits" within each constituency. We then weighted each input dataset by these proportions, depending on the type of dataset, to find how much of the input quantity "sits" in each constituency.

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20 May 2022

Understanding how your area is performing on key climate issues is an important step to figuring out the changes needed in your community.  

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