FOI - Grant funding relating to District Heat Network in Kingston [Jul 2022]

Your request

Please provide:

• Details of any grant funding made by the GLA to Kingston Council or any third party to fund any activity, including feasibility studies, for a District Heat Network in Kingston. 
• Decision notices for any grant funding made and the terms of any grants made.
• Information on the Heat Network Investment Project or any other public sector grant or loan funding initiative of which grantor loan funding to Kingston for a District Heat Network has formed part.
• Any feasibility reports that have been completed, in whatever form they exist, of a possible District Heat Network in Kingston. 
• Any environmental assessments, in whatever form they exist, relating to a possible District Heat Network in Kingston.

Our response

Funding has been provided by the GLA since 2017 for the development of a low carbon District Heat Network in Kingston via the Local Energy Accelerator (LEA) programme (previously the Decentralised Energy Enabling Project (DEEP)) which is 50% funded by the GLA and 50% funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The GLA agreed to support this project via a Support Agreement.

A grant has not been paid directly to the Royal Borough of Kingston (RBK). RBK procured consultancies from our framework of consultants for the expertise. A tri-partite agreement was then signed between RBK, the selected consultancy and the GLA to complete the studies required. The GLA then paid the consultants directly for the work they completed for RBK.

The following table shows the funding support for these LEA projects which have either been paid or are contracted to be paid:

The Decision Notices for the above projects are the funding Support Agreements between the GLA and RBK (one for Projects A to D as these were funded by DEEP, and one for Project E funded by LEA) and the support letters for Project D (for an extension to project C) and Project E. These include the terms and conditions of the funding support and are attached to this letter.

We do not have information on the Heat Network Investment Project or any other public sector grant or loan funding initiative of which grant or loan funding to Kingston for a District Heat Network has formed part. This grant is administered by the UK Government (Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy).

Feasibility reports for the Projects A, C and D in the table are included as attachments to this letter. The report for Project B was not issued and superseded by Report C.

Deliverables from Project E have not been produced yet as this project has only recently started. Another report was written by Ove Arup & Partners in 2015 and is attached to this letter.

Please also note the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames: Energy Master Plan Final Report published on our website.

The GLA does not hold any environmental assessments relating to a possible District Heat Network in Kingston. The RBK should be contacted for these assessments.

The information redacted for Reports A, C and D are exempted under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Section 43(2) exempts information whose disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any legal person (an individual, a company, the public authority itself or any other legal entity).

It is the GLA’s position that the third party’s commercial interests would be prejudiced or would be likely to be prejudiced by the disclosure of the requested information.

The exemption at section 43(2) is qualified, and therefore subject to a public interest test.

Even where a qualified exemption is engaged it can only be applied where the public interest in withholding information outweighs that in favour of releasing it. In applying the public interest test the GLA have given careful consideration to the arguments for and against disclosure.

Arguments in Favour of Disclosure

• Promote accountability and transparency in relation to commercial transactions – there is a clear public interest in ensuring that commercial transactions are undertaken on a competitive commercial basis.
• Promoting understanding of GLA’s decisions – disclosure may promote understanding of the process and decision reached by the GLA.
• Generating confidence in integrity – disclosure may promote public confidence in the integrity of the procedures followed.

Arguments Against Disclosure

• There is a public interest in allowing public authorities to withhold information which if disclosed, would reduce providers' ability to compete in a commercial environment, for the reasons given above.
• The redacted information references third party operational costs including capital costs breakdown information. There is a public interest in protecting the commercial interests of individual companies and ensuring they are able to compete fairly, thereby disclosing detailed financial capital costs and funding would heavily prejudice their ability in doing so.
• Disclosure of information may cause unwarranted reputational damage or loss of confidence in the GLA with its partners.
• Revealing information such as a heat rates and usages can be detrimental to a provider's commercial interest and would offer its competitors significant advantage.
• If an organisation has full knowledge of a provider's estimated or actual funding requirements, harm may be caused in its ability to negotiate competitively with its providers. This would include any ongoing or future negotiations.

The Balancing Exercise

Having taken into account the arguments for and against disclosure, the GLA has decided that the public interest in this case is best served by maintaining the exemption under section 43(2) of the Act and by redacting some the information requested.

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting reference MGLA300522–1989.