A local authority is asking its residents to back an unprecedented 34% increase in its share of council tax bills – equivalent to £52 for a typical household – to fund a radical climate emergency action plan, in what is set to be the first local referendum of its kind.

Warwick district council’s proposed green levy would raise £30m over 10 years to invest in making council-owned buildings and vehicles energy efficient, reducing traffic congestion, and improving air quality. The authority aims to be carbon-neutral by 2025.

The proposed inflation-busting increase, which would add £1 a week to the district element of the average band D household’s council tax bill from April, came after all-party talks that followed the council’s unanimous decision last June to declare a climate emergency.

The council, which is currently run by a coalition of Conservative and independent councillors, says it put aside political differences with Labour, Green and Lib Dem colleagues to work together to create the ambitious proposal.

A joint statement by the five party group leaders said: “Together we believe that the time has now come to take practical action to deal with the climate emergency.

“This plan will enable the council to be carbon neutral by 2025 and help the district to also be carbon neutral by 2030, plus make necessary local preparations for climate disasters such as flooding. Investment today will help our communities ‘face the future’ with confidence.”

Proposals include making its 5,500 council homes energy-efficient, introducing electrical charging points for cars, replacing diesel-fuelled refuse trucks with electric-powered versions, introducing tighter planning rules to ensure all new homes are built to the highest environmental standards, and planting new trees.

The council, which has an £18m annual budget, said it was forced to consider raising council tax because years of cuts meant that it would not be able to finance a climate emergency plan without taking money out of core services such as housing, refuse collection and transport.

Although it recognises that it may be working against the grain by asking voters to accept a council tax rise, it hopes that residents will be sufficiently alarmed by severe weather events, such as flooding in the UK, and bushfires in Australia to recognise that the local council has to “do its bit” to tackle the climate crisis.

The council’s Conservative leader, Andrew Day, said it was £7m a year worse off and lost all its government grants over the past decade leaving it with no spare money to invest. “We are saying to residents, ‘If you really want us to hit this [climate crisis] then we have to be honest with you and ask you for this extra £1 a week on council tax.’”

The Green party’s group leader, Ian Davison, said it was difficult to know if people would vote for the plan. “Most people accept the climate emergency is here and we should do something about it. But people are also sceptical of what difference a council could make.

“It’s hard because instinctively people will say they do not want to pay more council tax. But when you talk to them and explain it they often change their minds.”

Warwick is normally a Tory-stronghold but an electoral upset last May saw it lose many of its councillors, including the then council leader. The Greens made big inroads, winning eight of the council’s 44 seats, which helped open the way for all-party talks on how to tackle the climate crisis locally.

The referendum, which will cost £300,000, will take place on 7 May.

Since 2012 councils have been required by law to hold a referendum if they want to raise council tax by more than 3%. Up to now, no councils had taken up the option, despite shrinking budgets caused by austerity cuts, because of an assumption that residents would not vote in favour.

In 2015 Bedfordshire’s police and crime commissioner proposed a 15.8% increase in the policing element of the county’s council tax to fund 100 extra police officers, but this was rejected by two-thirds of voters in a referendum.

Tory-run Surrey county council mooted a 15% referendum in 2017 to tackle its social-care funding crisis, but abandoned the proposal after talks with government ministers.