MD2219 Horizon 2020 programme – CLEVER Cities

Three quarters of the European Union’s population live in cities. This is expected to increase further. Economically deprived communities and neglected urban areas tend to be in areas where good quality green space is limited. Degraded physical environments and limited access to good natural resources often result in low levels of social cohesion, elevated crime rates and high levels of perceived insecurity. Populations facing such local challenges often lack opportunities to express their needs, contribute their knowledge or be involved in developing and implementing suitable solutions. While urban regeneration has been highlighted as a necessary response to improve the fortune of these vulnerable areas and populations, environmental improvements have generally been considered as a consequence rather than a catalyst for regeneration.

Consequently, through its H2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme, the European Commission (EC) invited consortia to bid for funding for initiatives that would demonstrate how nature-based solutions (green infrastructure) can support and catalyse urban regeneration.

Nature-based solutions are practical techniques that use natural components and features (such as trees and other vegetation) and the benefits they provide to address urban challenges such as reducing storm water run-off, improving air quality and providing walking and cycling routes to promote active travel. Nature-based solutions include green roofs, green walls, rain gardens and street trees, in addition to more traditional features such as parks and green spaces. Crucially, a nature-based solutions approach requires that these are planned, designed and managed in a smart, 'engineered' way to optimise the benefits they provide to people.

In November 2017, the EC approved a bid by a consortium of 34 European partners to deliver the ‘CLEVER Cities’ initiative . CLEVER Cities will be a five-year initiative to design and implement nature-based solutions in partnership with residents to promote sustainable and socially inclusive urban regeneration. Demonstrator projects will be delivered in the three lead cities of Hamburg, Milan and London.

CLEVER Cities will also support other cities in Europe to adopt nature-based solution as an urban regeneration tool by sharing information, experience and knowledge with five follower cities – Larissa (Greece), Malmo (Sweden), Covasna (Romania), Madrid (Spain) and Belgrade (Serbia). The project will also link with at least one city in South America and up to five in China. The aim is to position Europe as a global leader in nature-based solutions policy, planning and practical techniques.

A total of €14,214,666 has been awarded by the EC to the consortium to support the co-creation of urban regeneration projects in Hamburg, Milan and London and to capture, disseminate and share learning and knowledge with the other cities.

The nature-based solutions initiative in London will be centred on the Thamesmead estate in south-east London, which is the subject of a multi-million-pound regeneration initiative funded by the Peabody Trust, London Borough of Bexley and the GLA. CLEVER Cities will add-value by providing funds and resources to enable co-creation, and to embed nature-based solutions into the regeneration programme to help transform the estate.

To achieve this, the London demonstrator of the CLEVER Cities project has been awarded €2,606,007. The GLA will receive €972,096 (approximately £858,000 at the current Euro to Sterling exchange rate); the remainder being awarded to the other partners in London, i.e. Peabody Trust Groundwork London and Social Finance. The award to the GLA is to cover the costs of co-ordinating the London demonstrator. The practical and on-the-ground deliverables of the London demonstrator project are the responsibility of the Peabody Trust and Groundwork London, with specialist support (on social investing) provided by Social Finance Limited. These partners will be the subject of individual, separate grant awards. The GLA has no financial responsibility for the London demonstrator project other than the management of its own grant award.

The award to the GLA will cover:

• Direct Personnel Costs (€705,077) to cover the costs of a newly recruited Project Manager (expected to be a grade 9 for the duration of the programme) who will be responsible for co-ordinating and supporting the delivery of the project, plus the costs of existing GLA staff who will be providing expert advice on nature-based solutions policy and practice
• Indirect costs (€190,419) to cover organisational overheads (including rechargeable costs against IT, accommodation, utilities, etc.)
• Travel (€29,000) to cover participation in consortium meetings
• Other goods and services (€27,600) to cover costs of hosting workshops and managing data
• Subcontracting (€20,000) to fund integration of project data with London Datastore

The GLA is not required to provide cash or in-kind match in relation to the EC's grant award.

Notification from EC of commencement of grant preparation is provided in Appendix 1.

The grant award will be made via standard EC grant agreements which are subject to Belgian law.

CLEVER Cities aims to foster sustainable and socially inclusive urban regeneration in eight European cities (plus at least one in South-America and up to five in China) through the use of nature-based solutions to engage local citizens.

Through demonstrator projects in the lead cities of Hamburg, Milan and London, the project will support the co-creation (see below) of locally tailored nature-based solutions to deliver tangible social, environmental and economic improvements within the context of urban regeneration. It will demonstrate that nature-based solutions are scalable and can be main-streamed. It will also result in the preparation of robust replication roadmaps for implementing nature-based solutions in the ‘follower’ cities.

A unique and core objective of the CLEVER Cities project is the principle of co-creation whereby the project partners are required to ensure full and active participation of the local community in helping to plan and design the nature-based solutions. The co-creation principle will extend across other aspects of the CLEVER Cities project to ensure a multi-disciplinary approach to developing the nature-based solutions; ensuring, for example, that ecologists and engineers, architects and economists work together to design solutions that add-value to urban regeneration projects.

The expected outcomes of the London demonstrator are:

• Working with local residents in an area undergoing urban regeneration to design green spaces and greener public realm that improves approximately 20ha of the urban environment of the Thamesmead, and stitches this together with new nature-based solutions (green infrastructure) to improve connectivity through and within the estate.
• Establishing a demonstration project that shows how and why green infrastructure should be a key component of urban regeneration because of the benefits to the health and well-being of local residents and an improvement in their economic prospects
• Designing approaches (including the use of new technologies) for working with and communicating to local communities that are effective in meeting their needs and could be practically applied to other urban regeneration schemes
• Development of information and analytics that better communicate the environmental, social and economic benefits of nature-based solutions.
• New and improved landscape and public realm at the Thamesmead estate in south-east London utilising nature-based solutions to complement and inform the exiting urban regeneration project.
• Information, evidence, products and public participation techniques that helps to ensure that nature-based solutions are mainstreamed into future urban regeneration projects across London.

A summary of the London demonstrator is provided in Appendix 2.

In the exercising of his functions, the Mayor has legal duties to consider equality of opportunity, elimination of discrimination and the promotion of good community relations (GLA Act 1999, as amended, Equality Act 2010). This includes the public sector equality duty, as set out in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.

The 2010 Act includes a single public sector equality duty covering race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment. These are the grounds upon which discrimination is unlawful and are referred to as ‘protected characteristics.’ The public sector duty requires the Mayor when exercising his functions to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act, advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. This duty applies to the delivery of projects such as CLEVER Cities.

Green spaces, a good quality public realm and access to the natural environment (collectively known as green infrastructure) provide multiple benefits to Londoners including places and spaces to relax, play, and exercise, thus making a positive contribution to physical health and mental well-being. However, good quality green infrastructure is not evenly distributed across London; more affluent neighbourhoods tend to have more and better quality green infrastructure, in part because provision of good quality parks increases property values.

The Mayor’s draft London Environment Strategy outlines his ambitions to ensure that the city’s green infrastructure is protected, managed and improved to benefit all Londoners. This is because good quality public realm and access to the natural environment provides multiple benefits to Londoners including space to relax, play, and exercise, thus making a positive contribution to physical health and mental well-being. Greener urban environments also help to improve air quality and lessen the adverse impacts of a changing climate. A key objective is to increase the amount and availability of green space for those Londoners who have least access to its benefits. These include black and minority ethnic (BAME) groups and children from BAME and lower-income households who tend to have less access to good quality green space as a consequence of living in less affluent neighbourhoods.

The CLEVER Cities initiative will help tackle this social inequality through implementation of nature-based solutions that support the environmental, social and economic objectives of urban regeneration. The demonstrator projects in Hamburg, Milan and London are located in areas where they will have a positive impact on communities that do not have access to or experience of good quality landscape, public realm or natural environment. In London, the demonstrator project will be located in Thamesmead which has: 63 per cent BAME residents; over 50 per cent of residents employed in ‘low value added’ sectors; life expectancy 4 years below the national average. Lessons learnt from this demonstrator project are expected to be applied in other urban regeneration projects across London where similar levels of inequality occur.

Ensuring representative resident participation is a key objective of Clever Cities project. The Peabody Trust owns and manages the Thamesmead estate and is leading the regeneration project at Thamesmead, Groundwork London will be supporting the public engagement and community participation aspects of the demonstrator project. Both organisations have good track records in ensuring representative participation and the CLEVER Cities project itself intends to develop new tools and approaches (including the use of digital technologies) to ensure all residents have the opportunity to inform the scope and form of the nature-based solutions to be integrated into the public realm of the estate.

Given this, it is considered that the proposals will not have any significant adverse impact on any particular social group or community in terms of the Mayoral equalities duties. Indeed the delivery of the CLEVER Cities project, and the lessons learnt from the pilot, aims to increase participation by under-represented groups in urban regeneration projects, and to design and implement nature-based solutions that meet their needs.

Risks

Financial risk – the project is 100 per cent funded by the EC. The GLA will be able to claim quarterly in arrears throughout the project. The funding is subject to a formal grant agreement with the EC. All consortium partners will sign a legally binding consortium agreement clearly placing responsibility for any instances of fraud or financial mismanagement with the appropriate consortium partner.

Notwithstanding the consortium agreement, the City of Hamburg are the overarching project manager and, therefore, the GLA is responsible only for the prudent management of its own grant award budget. Furthermore, the GLA will not be exposed to the financial liabilities of the other partners in the London demonstrator project; the grant awards to other London demonstrator partners are made directly not via the GLA.

Poor performance of other consortium members – the consortium agreement and the grant agreement will set out clear roles and responsibilities and tasks for consortium members based on a series of work packages. These will be based on the work packages set out in the Stage 2 application (see supporting papers). There will be ongoing monitoring of progress towards the delivery of tasks and work packages by the City of Hamburg as project managers and by ICLEI as project administrators.

Brexit – prior to submission of the Stage 2 application other consortium members sought assurances from the EC that UK involvement in the consortium would not prejudice the evaluation and assessment of the application in light of forthcoming UK withdrawal from the EC. These assurances were given and the success of the application demonstrates that UK involvement in this project beyond the potential UK exit date is not a barrier to participation or receipt of funds. Furthermore, the UK Government has made a commitment, if necessary, to underwrite the payments even when specific projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU.

Links to Mayoral Priorities

The CLEVER Cities project has clear links to objectives in recently published Mayoral strategies. These include the draft London Environment Strategy which contains policies and proposals that shift the focus of policy towards promoting London’s green spaces and natural environment as a green infrastructure that can be integrated with the greening of the built environment to deliver a wide range of environmental, social and economic benefits. This approach is reinforced by the land-use policy framework set out in the consultation draft of the new London Plan.

CLEVER Cities and, in particular, the London demonstrator project will develop tools, techniques and demonstration projects that will help show how urban regeneration can contribute to the Mayor’s commitment to make London a National Park City. Making London a National Park City frames Mayoral policies and programmes to ensure that London becomes “A city which is greener in the long-term than it is today and where people and nature are better connected. A city which protects the core network of parks and green spaces and where buildings and the public realm are not defined only by stone, brick, concrete, glass and steel. A city that is rich with wildlife and every child benefits from exploring, playing and learning outdoors. A city where we all enjoy high-quality green spaces, the air is safe to breathe, our rivers are clean and more people choose to walk and cycle.”

Mayoral approval is sought for the GLA to accept €972,096 (approximately £858,000 at the current Euro to Sterling exchange rate) from the European Commission for co-ordinating the delivery of the London-based component of the CLEVER Cities programme. Approval is also requested to spend this grant between April 2018 to March 2023.

The income is expected to cover the expenditure detailed in paragraph 1.9 above. As the majority of the grant award is to cover personnel costs and indirect costs these are expected to be fixed costs for each of the five-years. It should be noted that the CLEVER Cities Programme is wholly funded by EU income.

The GLA will make claims for the reimbursement of costs in arrears based upon actual spend and will be paid in euros. Consequently, there is the risk that the GLA will suffer from exchange rate losses and the income received will not cover the expenditure incurred. Whilst it is not possible to estimate how much the potential loss will be this issue will be addressed by regular review of exchange rate fluctuations. If there are exceptional fluctuations that cannot be accommodated by prudent budget management there is provision under EC grant agreement rules for the restructuring of the project to negate the need for provision to be made from within GLA budgets. Otherwise any losses will be contained within existing Environment budgets.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

o 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 economic development and wealth creation, social development or the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London; and

o in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’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; and
 consult with appropriate bodies.

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 between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Officers must ensure that they are content that the GLA can comply with any conditions attached to any funding agreement implemented by the EC in relation to CLEVER cities. No reliance should be placed upon such funding until there is a legally binding commitment from the EC to provide the same.

The UK Government has confirmed that where UK organisations bid directly to the European Commission on a competitive basis for EU funding projects whilst the UK is still a member of the EU, the Treasury will underwrite the payments of such awards, even when specific projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU

Any services required must be procured by Transport for London Procurement who will determine the detail of the procurement strategy to be adopted in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.

The Mayor may, under section 38 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999, delegate the exercise of the GLA’s functions to the Executive Director of Development, Environment and Enterprise as proposed.

Officers must ensure that appropriate contract documentation is put in place before the commencement of the services.