DD2628 Supporting net-zero Further Education estates

1.1.    In the Skills Roadmap for London, the Mayor set his expectations for City Hall funded skills providers to lead by example as ‘Anchor Institutions’ and be good employers in their communities. Specifically, this includes an expectation that:
•    City Hall-funded adult education providers are ‘Good Employers’ that meet or are working towards the Mayor’s Good Work Standard (GWS)
•    adult education providers are inclusive organisations that are representative of the communities they serve and are located within
•    adult education providers are supporting decarbonizing ambitions and will set out their plans for achieving net zero-carbon estates by 2030. As a first step, the Skills Roadmap for London asks providers to put plans in place by 2024, setting out how they will meet this target. It is likely that these plans will identify the need for significant investment.
1.2.    Approval has already been sought for three toolkits, to support providers with best practice, guidance, case studies and signposting to additional support to meet each of the expectations in the Skills Roadmap for London (MD2953). The toolkits are expected to be complete by March 2023, to support providers to develop their Adult Education Budget (AEB) delivery plans for the 2023-24 academic year. 
1.3.    The toolkits will be developed in close collaboration with the sector, informed by a steering group of relevant stakeholders. The net zero-carbon toolkit will also signpost providers to existing GLA support offered by the GLA Environment team, including the Mayor’s Retrofit Accelerator Programme and other financing opportunities such as Green Bond and the Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund.
1.4.    To date, engagement with stakeholders has highlighted that the significant investment required to decarbonise further education (FE) estates across London, is one of the key barriers for providers to implement this commitment, though as yet the GLA has not been able to quantify the level of investment required.  
1.5.    At present, the GLA has limited additional funding levers to support investment in net zero estates. In October 2022, the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) approved that the remaining Skills Capital Funding should be used on contingency funding for existing projects and to support new projects delivering the Mayor’s Skills Academies priorities, which includes Green. To date, the Skills Capital funding has required new build and refurbishment projects to meet Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) standards through sustainable design and construction methods which contribute to net zero facilities. There is circa £30m of capital funding remaining and circa £22m of this is required for contingency funding meaning the GLA has very limited capacity going forwards to support providers through capital investment to achieve net zero. 
1.6.    However, £100,000 of revenue funding is available to support research activity, and as outlined above at present there is a gap in the evidence base on the level of investment (in addition to any investments already being made) required to enable London’s FE sector to meet net zero-carbon by 2030. 
 

2.1.    To fill this gap and to support evidence-based lobbying, it is proposed that additional research is carried out to assess the potential cost of decarbonising London’s FE estates. Through this research, the GLA could also seek to identify an estimate of the number of jobs this process of decarbonisation would support, and the skills and training required to complete this work, which could inform future AEB requests.
2.2.    The findings from this research will be used by the GLA and sector stakeholders to provide an indication of the investment required to meet net zero across FE estates. This will support providers in making applications to any relevant funding opportunities and will inform lobbying asks to government and engagement with the Department for Education, to get providers the support they need to meet our shared ambition of reaching net zero across the sector.
2.3.    Early engagement with the GLA Environment team has suggested that £100,000 would be sufficient to commission a consultant to calculate a best estimate of the level of investment required for London’s FE colleges to decarbonise, noting that this would not necessarily be enough to carry out detailed work to give figures at an individual provider level. 
2.4.    This research will form part of a wider package of support for the skills sector in London, to support adult skills providers to meet the expectations set in the Mayor’s Skills Roadmap for London. 
2.5.    This work will be commissioned in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.
 

3.1.    Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the Mayor of London must have ‘due regard’ of the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.
3.2.    As outlined in the GLA’s Pathways to Net Zero Carbon by 2030 report, the cost of no action to reduce carbon emissions will impact lower income Londoners the most, with overheating, toxic air and flooding all posing a risk. We must rapidly reduce emissions to limit the worst effects of the climate emergency and deliver a safe and healthy environment for all Londoners. This research aims to support the reduction of emissions by London’s FE sector, by assessing the investment that is required to do this and to inform future engagement with central government. 
3.3.    Procurement of a consultant to deliver this research will be conducted in line with the GLA’s corporate responsible procurement policy. Appointed consultants will be expected to uphold the Equality responsibilities of the GLA, and these expectations will be set out in the research specification. All published outputs will be available in accessible formats.
 

Key risks and issues
4.1.    A key risk associated with this work is that the GLA is not able to meet the level of investment that will be identified by the research, to decarbonise FE estates in London. The GLA will use the funding to lobby government and engage with relevant organisations to invest in the sector.  
4.2.    A second risk associated with this work is meeting the delivery timeline. Upon approval, officers will engage with Transport for London (TfL) Procurement to agree a procurement strategy and timeline. Officers have conducted desk research and scoping to determine how long similar research has taken to conduct. A delivery timeline and key milestones will be agreed with the commissioned consultant, and regularly monitored to identify and mitigate any potential delays.   

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
4.3.    As outlined in section one, this research supports the delivery of the Mayor’s Skills Roadmap for London, and the expectation set for City Hall funded skills providers to achieve net zero-carbon estates by 2030. 
4.4.    This supports the Mayor’s wider ambition for London to be a net zero carbon city by 2030, to make London a greener and more prosperous city. In 2018, the Mayor published the London Environment Strategy which showcases key policies and programmes to achieve net zero targets. The UK, along with 178 other countries, signed up to the Paris Agreement in 2015 to attempt to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The Mayor’s London Environment Strategy was one of the first city plans published to be compliant with the highest ambition of the Paris Agreement.
4.5.    The 1.5C Compatible Plan sets out what the Mayor has committed to do, alongside key steps to help achieve this. Increasing the number of buildings retrofitted with energy efficiency measures is a key message within this document, and this research commission will help to implement this ambition amongst skills providers.
4.6.    There are no conflicts of interest to declare from those involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision. 
 

5.1.    This decision form seeks approval for expenditure of up to £100,000 from the Skills Capital Programme Revenue budget to support a study to assess what level of investment is required for London’s Further Education (FE) sector to achieve net zero-carbon estates by 2030.
5.2.    MD2142 approves spend of up to £5m of revenue associated costs from the Skills for Londoners Capital Fund. The Skills Capital Programme Revenue budget comes from the £5m revenue approved under this MD.
5.3.    Funding for future financial years will be subject to the annual budget setting process and is subject to change. The expenditure of £100,000 from the Skills Capital Programme Revenue budget in the financial year 2023-24 is assumed to be affordable and can only be confirmed when the budget allocation is formally approved in March 2023.
5.4.    Any contracts that commit the GLA in future years are subject to appropriate break clauses.
5.5.    The award of funding to the community organisations and groups will be subject to satisfactory financial due diligence.
 

6.1.    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:
6.1.1.    the decisions requested of the Director concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London; and
6.1.2.    in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to: 
•    pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people
•    consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom
•    consult with appropriate bodies. 
6.2.    In taking the decisions requested, the Director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty – namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010 and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion) and persons who do not (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.
6.3.    If the Director makes the decisions sought, officers must ensure that the services and supplies required are procured in liaison with TfL Procurement and in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code and contracts are put in place between and executed by the GLA and contractors before commencement of such services and supply. 
 

7.1.    Working with TfL Procurement, an external consultation will be commissioned to deliver this research project, based on the timeline below: 

MD2142 Skills for Londoners Capital Fund