ADD2875 Cadent Project Collaborate – Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund: Alpha phase

1.1.    Mayoral Decision (MD) 3382 approved establishing the Upgrading London’s Infrastructure (ULI) programme and its associated delivery plan. This named the Assistant Director of Connectivity, Air Quality, Transport and Infrastructure as the approved Senior Responsible Owner (SRO).

1.2.    The ULI delivery plan aims to ensure that London has the energy, water, digital connectivity and data infrastructure in place to achieve the Mayor’s ambitious goals around net zero, climate resilience, housing delivery and economic growth. It has four project groupings:

•    enabling the new infrastructure needed for housing and productivity
•    readying London’s infrastructure for the future
•    reducing disruption caused by infrastructure delivery
•    driving data innovation.

1.3.    Projects set out in the ULI delivery plan fall into one of three categories:

•    projects already detailed in an existing MD or Director Decision
•    projects for which MD3382 seeks Mayoral delegation to the SRO to take spending decisions
•    projects that will require separate MDs.

1.4.    Project Collaborate sits in the project group “reducing disruption caused by infrastructure delivery” (the third group listed paragraph 1.2). It also falls into the category of projects for which spending decisions are delegated to the SRO (the second category listed at paragraph 1.3). 

1.5.    Over almost a decade, the GLA Infrastructure Coordination Service (ICS) has brought together utilities, supply chains and highway authorities to plan and deliver works collaboratively. The ICS’s work reduces repeat excavations, and minimises disruption. Central to this work has been the standardisation of the required people; regulation; data and tools; and delivery methods. These collectively form our Dig Once Approach. This is a strategy that sets out how organisations beyond the GLA can embed collaboration as business as usual.

1.6.    This Assistant Director Decision seeks approval to receive a £15,371 contribution from Cadent Gas Limited as part of Project Collaborate. Funds received will cover GLA officer time and resource. Enabled through contribution from the Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund, the project aims to develop a national digital solution to proactively identify and coordinate collaborative streetworks opportunities.
 

2.1.    The objectives of our involvement are to ensure:

•    consistency with the GLA’s Dig Once Strategy – positioning London as the sectoral leader
•    shared knowledge, and potential enhancements to the approach, can be brought back into the GLA.

2.2.    Specifically, this work will include four areas of support:

•    Review and advisory input of project documentation, deliverables and emerging proposals. This will draw on the ICS’s experience of coordinating collaborative infrastructure and streetworks programmes.
•    Participation in workshops and project discussions. These will provide insight, and opportunity to challenge any aspects of the project – and so support the development of the project’s processes, governance arrangements and future operating model.
•    Provision of existing best-practice documentation (at the GLA’s discretion), relating to ICS processes and digital tools.
•    Sharing lessons learned and best-practice from the delivery of collaborative streetworks and infrastructure coordination initiatives in London.
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Mayor and GLA must comply with the public sector equality duty (PSED) and must have due regard to the need to:

•    eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act
•    advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not
•    foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.

3.2.    The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership (but only in respect of the requirements to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination), race (ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, and sexual orientation.

3.3.    Consideration of the PSED is not a one-off task. The duty must be fulfilled before taking a decision, at the time of taking a decision, and after the decision has been taken, to ensure that equalities impacts are kept under ongoing review.

3.4.    The ULI delivery plan helps achieve several of the Mayor’s statutory equality objectives. Progress on delivery of these objectives is reported on each year in the Mayor’s Annual Equality Report.
 

Risks and issues

4.1.    The key risks and issues, and their mitigating actions, are outlined in the table below:

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.2.    The ULI Delivery Plan outlines several strategic approaches that will benefit from knowledge-sharing and learnings of involvement on this project:

•    Modernisation of London’s infrastructure. This is critical to unlocking economic growth, productivity and housing delivery; and will occur through investment in networks, often far beyond their originally intended design life.
•    Achieving ambitious Mayoral targets – ensuring that London has the energy, water, digital connectivity and data infrastructure to meet goals around net zero, climate resilience, housing delivery, and economic growth.

4.3.    Programme and financial efficiencies unlocked through collaborative streetworks can directly contribute toward targeted actions related to building housing and infrastructure, as outlined in the London Growth Plan.

4.4.    Additionally, Cadent are a long-term partner of the GLA organisation, including through:

•    director-level representation on the Mayor’s London Infrastructure Group
•    sponsor and steering group representation within the ICS Streets Service
•    long-standing support to ICS activities and pilot initiatives.

Conflicts of interest

4.5.    There are no known conflicts to declare regarding those involved in the drafting or clearance of this form.

5.1.    The GLA will receive a £15,371 contribution from Cadent Gas Limited as part of Project Collaborate. The money received will be spent on staffing, covering time spent by Infrastructure team staff providing the support.

5.2.    The proposed spending is forecast in financial year 2026-27 is £15,371. 

5.3.    The funding is part of the Infrastructure Coordination Service project within the ULI programme. It is a new external contribution from Cadent Gas Limited that was not included in the GLA Mayor budget for 2026-27. 

5.4.    All appropriate budget adjustments will be made.

5.5.    A memorandum of understanding will be signed by both the GLA and Cadent.
 

6.1.    The project will be delivered according to the following timetable: