MD2827 Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme

1.1. The London Recovery Board, co-chaired by the Mayor of London and the Chair of London Councils, has set out a programme for the capital’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that seeks to build back better and make London a fairer, more equal, greener, and more resilient city. Accelerating the delivery of a cleaner, greener London is one of the Board’s five key outcomes for the recovery programme.

1.2. As part of the recovery programme, the Green New Deal Mission, jointly developed by the Greater London Authority and London Councils, will tackle the climate and ecological emergencies and improve air quality by doubling the size of London’s green economy to accelerate job creation for all. The four objectives of this Mission are to:

• improve London’s natural environment, improve air quality, and tackle the climate and ecological emergencies
• promote and incentivise activities that sustain and grow London’s green economy
• prioritise interventions reducing health inequalities and social injustices
• engage Londoners and businesses in the journey to become a zero-pollution and greener city.

1.3. Making London’s public realm greener, improving access to and enhancing green spaces, increasing the capital’s resilience to the impacts of a warming climate, and improving air quality are critical to achieving the aims of the Green New Deal Mission. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated more than ever the importance of green infrastructure for Londoners’ wellbeing, reinforcing the extensive existing evidence base.

1.4. It has, however, also highlighted the inequalities in access to green spaces. Half of London’s households are in areas of deficiency of access to green space , with lower-income Londoners and Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) Londoners much more likely to live in these locations. The Mayor’s programmes since 2016 to improve London’s green infrastructure have already supported 280 green space and tree planting projects, improving over 400 hectares of green space. The Green New Deal Mission provides an opportunity to further tackle these inequalities, moving towards the Mayor’s ambition for no Londoner to live more than a 10-minute walk from a green space.

1.5. London’s green infrastructure is also vital for enhancing the capital’s resilience to the impacts of a warming climate. Increasing and enhancing our network of green infrastructure can help to reduce flood risk, keep the city cooler by reducing the urban heat island effect, provide shade, improve water quality, and promote active travel through walking and cycling. Climate change will disproportionately affect those least able to respond and recover from it, including lower-income Londoners, older Londoners and children – groups also severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic – and those with pre-existing health conditions such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, etc. The impacts of climate change will also be unevenly distributed across the city, with neighbourhoods with high income and health inequalities, and high concentrations of vulnerable people, at greater risk.

1.6. This MD seeks the Mayor’s approval for an Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme, which comprises two elements: a community greening and climate adaptation grants scheme (‘Grow Back Greener Fund’), and a Schools Climate Resilience Project. This programme will form part of a wider package of measures supporting London’s green spaces and improving its climate resilience as part of the Green New Deal Mission. Additional programmes within this overall package are covered under MD2824.

1.7. The mission-based approach to recovery requires the public, private and voluntary sectors to work together to deliver joint goals. The Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience programme will be delivered in partnership with Thames Water, who will contribute funding of £1m, repurposed from the Drinking Water Fountains Programme (MD2690 and MD2415). This joint programme, which will deliver more than 100 drinking fountains across London, had a total joint budget of £5m. Cost efficiencies achieved on the fountain units and their installation resulted in a lower average cost than originally estimated per fountain. Consequently, the joint programme has a projected underspend of £2m (£1m Thames Water and £1m GLA funds). The partnership is keen to use this to develop further joint programmes to deliver on the Mayor’s and Thames Water’s environmental and social objectives.

1.8. Thames Water will contribute £0.5m towards the Grow Back Greener Fund grants scheme in 2021-22, and £0.5m towards the Schools Climate Resilience Project across 2021-22 and 2022-23. This match funding will be paid directly to grant recipients and/or suppliers and will not be received as income by the GLA. In addition, the Department for Education (DfE) will contribute £0.5m towards the Schools Climate Resilience Project across 2021-22 and 2022-23 which also will not be received as income by the GLA.

1.9. This MD seeks the Mayor’s approval to spend the following GLA budget (totalling £2.525m) alongside the match funding described above on the Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience programme:

• £1.825m approved in the 2021-22 GLA Mayoral Budget under the Green New Deal Mission (under cover of MD2795), comprising:
  • £0.7m for “Inclusive Green Space”
  • £1m for “Climate Resilient and Healthy Streets Infrastructure”
  • £0.125m for “Climate Adaptation Delivery”
• £0.7m from the 2022-23 budget under the Green New Deal Mission (subject to budget approval for that financial year).

1.10. This MD also seeks approval to reprofile £0.8m of the £1m “Climate Resilient and Healthy Streets Infrastructure” budget (as outlined above) from 2021-22 into 2022-23, in order to align with programme delivery timeframes, and to enable the match funding from Thames Water and the DfE to be incorporated into the programme.

Grow Back Greener Fund

1.11. The Grow Back Greener Fund will make grants available for local projects that support communities to improve and create green spaces, restore wetlands and waterways, plant trees, install sustainable drainage, create wildlife habitat, and promote access to green space for Londoners. The grants will be offered in two rounds in 2021-22 and 2022-23, prioritising projects located in areas of poor access to green space and high climate risk, as well as those that offer training and skills-development opportunities. This grants scheme will build on the success of the first round of the Grow Back Greener Fund in 2020-21 (see MD 2665).

1.12. To deliver the Grow Back Greener Fund, Groundwork London will be contracted to provide grant management support and specialised community engagement advice, through the existing GLA Framework agreement (ICTI12805-A). Groundwork London have significant experience managing GLA grant programmes including the Greener City Fund Community Green Space and Community Tree Planting Grants, and the 2020-21 round of the Grow Back Greener Fund.

1.13. Grants will be awarded through an open, transparent call for applications, over two rounds in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Submissions will be assessed through a two-stage process managed by Groundwork London and the GLA, which will include a grants panel with independent environmental experts and representatives from Thames Water and London Councils. Final funding decisions will be made based on how well applications meet the criteria of the fund, as well as the location and type of projects, to support a balanced programme across London. 50 per cent of the grant will be paid upfront (subject to due diligence), with a further 25 per cent on receipt of a mid-term review and the remainder on completion. Grant recipients will be required to contribute a minimum of 20 per cent match funding (including in-kind funding).

Schools Climate Resilience Project

1.14. The second element of the programme is a Schools Climate Resilience Project, which will support schools to build their resilience to a changing climate. The programme capitalises on a timely opportunity to align Thames Water funding, central government funding and new data and evidence from the GLA and DfE on climate risk and vulnerability. The project will deliver a package of measures including: water-efficiency improvements (delivered in partnership with Thames Water’s Smarter Business Visits scheme, which is their non-domestic buildings water-efficiency programme); the installation of sustainable drainage rain planters to make playgrounds greener and reduce surface water flood risk; the preparation of bespoke climate adaptation plans; and the development of climate resilience education resources. The project will work with up to 100 schools, targeting those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. While the interventions delivered will help reduce risk of flooding, preventing flooding is not a stated aim of the project (the sources and causes of flooding are too complex for this one project to address).

1.15. In the summer of 2007, flooding in England resulted in widespread school closures that amounted to 400,000 lost pupil school days, at an estimated economic cost of £12m. In addition to Thames Water, the DfE are a project partner and will contribute funding and supply surface water flood risk data for the schools using their ‘assessment of risk to buildings’ data set.

1.16. The project will prioritise the top 10 per cent of schools with highest surface water flood risk and that fall within the worst bands of the GLA’s Climate Risk Mapping (which additionally considers heat risk and the distribution of communities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, encompassing metrics related to age, income and housing status).

1.17. In the first stage of the project, Thames Water will install smart meters, enabling clear assessment of the benefits of the water-saving measures implemented under their Smarter Business Visits scheme. Ensuing visits will incorporate the fixing of leaks, installation of water efficient fittings (for example tap restrictors, urinal sensors, converting single-flush to dual-flush) and the preliminary stages of survey work needed for the preparation of wider, bespoke climate adaptation plans. Water saving measures have the potential to save 9,500 litres per day per school (equating to approximately £5,000 per year saving on water bills) while meters will help schools plan for further water-efficiency measures in future.

1.18. For the second stage, the GLA will procure (via an invitation to tender) an appropriate delivery partner to supply and install ‘smart’ rain planters in all schools with exposed downpipes (this is expected to be around 60 per cent of the schools taking part in the project). These sustainable drainage (SuDS) planters will relieve the sewer network and reduce surface-water flood risk by storing roof runoff and discharging it at appropriate times. The ‘smart’ technology associated with the planters will monitor predicted weather, as well as provide monitoring data to the school regarding the amount of water diverted and provided for irrigation. This in turn will be used to engage students in climate adaptation learning related to tangible, on-site measures. The planters additionally provide low-maintenance green infrastructure, with potential associated wellbeing, heat risk, and air quality benefits. This element of the project is anticipated to require the largest portion of the overall partnership programme budget, estimated to cost a total of £0.9m for manufacturing and installation (including planting) across all schools.

1.19. An appropriate delivery partner will also be engaged (via a second invitation to tender) to prepare bespoke adaptation plans in the third stage of the project, building on previous audit schemes (for example the School Air Quality Audits programme) and drawing on recently published GLA guidance ‘How Schools and Early Years Settings can Adapt to Climate Change’. The plans will set out options for additional adaptation measures that schools could pursue as well as indicative costings, potential sources of funding, including any relevant Mayoral programmes, and relevant policy context. This will provide an estimate of the scale of the adaptation cost in order that a funding case can be made to boroughs and government.

1.20. The final stage of the project will draw on the tangible interventions made in schools to engage students, teachers, parents and school management in climate adaptation issues and measures to improve both personal and public resilience. Complementing the Schools Climate Kick-Start Engagement Programme planned around COP26 (see MD2832), we will procure a relevant delivery partner via a third invitation to tender to prepare climate education resources that link to and promote green skills essential to the wider green recovery.

Objectives

2.1. The programme set out in this Mayoral Decision will be expected to contribute to the four overarching objectives of the Green New Deal Mission which are to:

• improve London’s natural environment, improve air quality, and tackle the climate and ecological emergencies
• promote and incentivise activities that sustain and grow London’s green economy
• prioritise interventions reducing health inequalities and social injustices
• engage Londoners and businesses in the journey to become a zero-pollution and greener city.

2.2. The Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme’s objectives are to:

• enhance London’s vital green infrastructure, and make the built environment greener, to help the capital adapt and respond to the climate and ecological emergency by improving biodiversity, improving air quality, reducing flood and heat risks, and providing shade
• address the environmental and health inequalities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic by prioritising interventions in locations with poor access to green space, high vulnerability, and exposure to the impacts of climate change, and high flood risk
• support schools, communities, environmental groups, local authorities, and housing associations to create and enhance green space and take action to build their resilience to climate change
• create more opportunities for all Londoners, especially those from under-represented communities and children, to develop new green skills and knowledge, and to get outdoors, including by volunteering.

Outcomes

2.3. The first element of the programme, the Grow Back Greener Fund, will support projects that enhance London’s green infrastructure to provide multiple environmental, social and economic benefits, including:

• improved access to green space to support physical and mental health and reduce health inequalities, especially among Londoners currently lacking good access to open space
• increased resilience to the impacts of climate change, including through providing shade, reducing the urban heat island effect, and reducing surface-water flood risk
• improved air and water quality, and reduced exposure of people to air pollution
• enhanced biodiversity and ecological resilience, creation of wildlife habitat and increased tree canopy cover
• opportunities for Londoners to volunteer, access training to develop green skills and build community cohesion
• greener streets that encourage walking and cycling
• retention and creation of jobs within London’s environmental NGOs, supporting a more stable and resilient sector.

2.4. The second element of the programme, the Schools Climate Resilience Project, will:

• enhance the climate resilience of essential and at-risk social infrastructure
• reduce water scarcity by reducing water consumption in schools
• reduce surface-water flood risk by disconnecting downpipes and reducing strain on the sewer network
• deliver green infrastructure and water savings to schools
• improve the profile and understanding of climate change adaptation by providing tangible interventions, monitoring data, and providing education resources to engage students, teachers, school management and parents in measures that can enhance personal and public resilience.

Outputs

Grow Back Greener Fund

2.5. The Grow Back Greener Fund community grants scheme will support a wide range of interventions to help make London greener, healthier, and more resilient to the impacts of climate change. These projects will take place in and enhance publicly accessible spaces including parks, community gardens, housing estates, schools, streets, waterways, and nature reserves. They will be focused on making physical improvements to these spaces.

2.6. The fund will prioritise projects located in areas of poor access to open space, especially where these are also in areas of deprivation. It will also prioritise projects that work with, or are preferably led by, Londoners who are less likely to access green space, including BAME Londoners, lower-income Londoners, and those aged 65 and over. Where relevant, it will also prioritise projects located in areas of high climate risk, particularly in areas of high flood risk. Prioritisation will be informed by the recently published London Climate Risk Mapping. The fund will also prioritise projects that offer training and skills development opportunities for Londoners.

2.7. The Grow Back Greener Fund will be split into two themed strands: access to green space and climate adaptation and water. The access to green space strand will deliver projects including, but not exclusive to:

• enhancing and creating publicly accessible green spaces for people and wildlife
• improving access to green space, including by creating green corridors and active travel routes, and by opening up previously inaccessible spaces
• creating and improving community gardens and community food-growing spaces
• enhancing and creating green spaces on housing estates
• permanent greening of streets and the wider built environment in the public realm
• creating, restoring, and improving management of wildlife habitat
• creating spaces for outdoor play and learning to support children’s access to nature, including within school grounds
• supporting Londoners, especially under-represented groups, to access green space and nature.

2.8. The climate adaptation and water strand will deliver projects including, but not exclusive to:

• installing green SuDS features to reduce local flood risk and store water for reuse
• increasing green cover and reducing surface water flood risk by de-paving to turn grey to green
• cleaning up, restoring, and enhancing water bodies including rivers, canals, and ponds
• tree planting to create shade and promote cooling, improve air quality, manage surface water, and support natural flood management
• using nature-based solutions such as constructed wetlands to improve water quality
• increasing water and wastewater awareness.

2.9. The Grow Back Greener Fund will offer grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 for the access to green space theme, and between £10,000 and £75,000 for the climate adaptation and water theme. Applications will be open to civil society organisations, schools and local authorities (where working in partnership with communities).

2.10. The exact number and type of projects supported by the Grow Back Greener Fund will depend on the number and quality of applications received; however, at least 90 could be funded over the two years of the programme.

Schools Climate Resilience Project

2.11. The Schools Climate Resilience Project will work with up to 100 schools, prioritising those with a combination of the highest surface water flood risk and climate risk.

2.12. The table below sets out the proposed budget for the Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme.

Table 1 – proposed budget

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. This involves having due regard to the need to remove or minimise any disadvantage suffered by those who share a relevant protected characteristic; taking steps to meet the different needs of such people; and encouraging them to participate in public life or in any other activity where their participation is disproportionately low.

3.2. The Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme outlined in this MD forms part of the policies and proposals in the London Environment Strategy, which has been informed by a full integrated impact assessment, including consideration of equalities. The Equalities Assessment Report for the London Environment Strategy noted that exposure to poor environmental conditions is much higher among BAME Londoners.

3.3. Black, Asian and minority ethnic Londoners and lower-income Londoners are more likely to live in areas of deficiency of access to green space, or in areas where green space quality is poor. GLA research has found that women, adults under 25, lower-income Londoners and social renters visit parks less often. National research has found that BAME people are least likely to visit green spaces. Similarly, 21 per cent of households in London lack access to a private or shared garden, and across England, BAME people are less likely to have access to a garden than White people.

3.4. Climate change will disproportionately affect those least able to respond and recover from it. Poorer Londoners will find it more difficult to recover from flooding and will suffer more from the impacts of the urban heat island effect. Extreme heat events will have a greater impact on older people, very young children, socially isolated people and people with existing health conditions.

3.5. The Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme will prioritise projects that aim to tackle these disparities. The Grow Back Greener Fund grant scheme will improve access to green space among Londoners who currently benefit less from the capital’s green infrastructure and will help to support climate resilience in locations where there is high exposure and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.

3.6. The Schools Climate Resilience Project will support interventions within essential social infrastructure and specifically target locations most at risk of climate impacts. Climate vulnerability relates to people’s exposure to climate impacts such as flooding or heatwaves, but also to personal and social factors that affect their ability to cope with and respond to extreme events. High climate risk coincides with areas of income and health inequalities.

3.7. While this programme does not guarantee that the schools worked with will not flood (given the complex nature of sources of flooding), it is likely that the risk of surface water flooding to buildings will be reduced which may reduce the need for school closures. Those living in poverty are disproportionately affected by school closures, for example parents may not have the personal and financial resilience to arrange alternative care, and closures exacerbate food insecurity as for many, schools are a source of healthy eating.

3.8. Equalities implications will be kept under ongoing review and taken into account as individual project applications are assessed and projects are delivered as part of the Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme.

4.1. The key risks and issues are set out in Table 2 below.

Table 2 – Risks and issues

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.2. The Inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme will contribute towards:

• London Environment Strategy Policy 5.1.1: protect, enhance and increase green areas in the city, to provide green infrastructure services and benefits that London needs now and in the future
• London Environment Strategy Policy 8.2.1: reduce the risk and manage the impacts of surface water, sewer, fluvial, reservoir and groundwater flooding in London
• London Environment Strategy Policy 8.2.3: increase the amount of sustainable drainage, prioritising greener systems across London in new development, and also retrofit solutions
• London Environment Strategy Proposal 5.1.1.f: back greater community involvement in the improvement and management of London’s green spaces and natural environment
• London Environment Strategy Policy 8.3.1: reduce London’s water consumption and leakage rate
• London Environment Strategy Policy 8.4.2: ensure critical infrastructure providers and occupants of homes, schools, hospitals, and care homes are aware of the impacts of increased temperatures and the Urban Heat Island, to protect health and reduce health inequalities
• London Environment Strategy Objective 5.1: increase tree canopy cover by 10 per cent, and to ensure that over half of London is green by 2050
• Inclusive London Strategic Objective 12: work with partners to help ensure our approach to improving green spaces is inclusive
• London Health Inequalities Strategy Objective 3.3: a greener city where all Londoner have access to good quality green spaces
• London Recovery Board high-level outcome to accelerate delivery of a cleaner, greener London, and Green New Deal Mission to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies and improve air quality by doubling the size of London’s green economy by 2030 to accelerate job creation for all.

Conflicts of interest

4.3. GLA officers involved in the drafting or clearance of this form are not aware that they have any conflicts of interest with the proposed programme.

4.4. If any conflicts of interest arise during the delivery of the programme (ie, a GLA officer has links with an organisation which applies for a grant) they will declare that interest and not take any part in assessing that grant application or awarding funding to that organisation.

Background

5.1. Approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £2,525,000 to fund an inclusive Green Space and Climate Resilience Programme, specifically upon two projects, a community grants programme, the Grow Back Greener Fund, and the Schools Climate Resilience Project over financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23. An estimated expenditure budget, including the funding sources is summarised in Table 3 below.

Table 3 – Financial profile

Match funding 

5.2. This programme will be delivered in partnership with Thames Water, who will contribute match funding of £1m: £500,000 towards the Grow Back Greener Fund grants scheme in 2021-22, and £500,000 towards the Schools Climate Resilience Project across 2021-22 and 2022-23. This match funding will be paid directly to grant recipients and/or suppliers. In addition, the Department for Education (DfE) will contribute £500,000 towards the Schools Climate Resilience Programme across 2021-22 and 2022-23. These match funding allocations will not be accounted for within the GLA’s accounts.

GLA funding

5.3. In terms of GLA funding for this programme, this will be sourced from the Environment Programme budget for 2021-22 and 2022-23, specifically against the following project budgets: Inclusive Green Space, Climate Change Adaptation Delivery and Climate Resilient Infrastructure.

5.4. The £1m to be financed from the Climate Resilient Infrastructure budget has been profiled to be spent over two financial years. However, this entire budget is currently allocated to 2021-22 and to part fund expenditure in 2022-23, £800,000 of this budget provision will be reprofiled into 2022-23. This reprofile will be built into the 2022-23 Environment budget as part of the GLA’s 2022-23 budget setting process.

5.5. In relation to the balance of funding of £700,000 required for 2022-23 (to be sourced from the Inclusive Green Space budget), this is containable within the indicative budget allocations set out for the programme in 2022-23 (as part of the 2021-22 budget setting process). However, the 2022-23 budgets are not yet formally approved and will be subject to funding still being available via the GLA’s 2022-23 budget setting process.

5.6. To mitigate any risk of the programme not being sufficiently resourced in future years to cover costs following the budget setting process, all contracts and grant agreements will include the usual break clauses that could potentially be exercised if required. All appropriate budget adjustments will be made.

6.1. The Mayor may do anything that he considers will further the promotion of economic development and wealth creation in Greater London, and its social development and environmental improvement under section 30 of the GLA Act 1999 (as amended). The objectives of the Grow Back Greener Fund and the Schools Climate Resilience Project, and connected expenditure, are consistent with those section 30 purposes, particularly the aspects of social and environmental development and improvement. In addition, the GLA (acting by the Mayor) may do anything that is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of any functions of the GLA exercisable by the Mayor under its subsidiary powers under section 34.

6.2. In taking the decisions requested of him, the Mayor 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 Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

6.3. Officers must ensure that all grant funding, which is to be distributed to third parties (other than members of the GLA Group), be made in accordance with the requirements in section 12 of the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code.

Table 4 - Activity Grow Back Greener Fund

Table 5 - Actvity Schools Climate Resilience Project

None