MD2994 Trees Call to Action Fund Grant Income

1.1. The GLA has committed to make London a world leader in improving the environment locally and globally, taking the lead in tackling climate change; reducing pollution; developing a low-carbon economy; consuming fewer resources, and using them more effectively; and ensuring all Londoners have access to a high-quality biodiverse environment. To address these challenges, the GLA has committed to a Green New Deal for London, combining strong economic recovery with action to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies, and creating green jobs and opportunities for all Londoners. It will help ensure London becomes a zero-carbon, zero-pollution city by 2030.

1.2. 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.

1.3. As part of the Recovery Programme, the Green New Deal mission, jointly developed by the GLA 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.

1.4. 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.

1.5. Tree planting will help deliver the Green New Deal mission by increasing canopy cover in those parts of London with low existing tree cover. Increasing London’s tree canopy cover by 10 per cent is a target within the London Environment Strategy, as tree canopies have positive effects in relation to the urban heat island effect and air quality, helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Increasing the presence of trees in the public realm is also known to have wellbeing and mental health benefits.

1.6. Conserving and enhancing woodland habitats, and greater community involvement in the improvement and management of London’s green spaces and natural environment, are also objectives in the London Environment Strategy.

1.7. The GLA coordinates the delivery of the LUFP with the FC. Actions in the Plan are delivered with the 25 members of the London Urban Forest Partnership. The LUFP sets out the goals and priority actions needed to protect, manage and expand the capital’s urban forest whilst promoting its benefits to, and engaging, landowners, managers and the wider public.

Trees Call to Action Fund

1.8. The TCAF was developed by Defra in partnership with the FC and is being delivered by the NLHF. The TCAF aims to deliver the objectives of the England Trees Action Plan (ETAP), and contributes toward meeting the government’s commitment to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares of trees a year by 2025. The TCAF’s focus is on building capacity within organisations and partnerships to deliver the ETAP objectives; it does not focus on funding tree planting directly, as there are other FC funds available for this. It requires match funding of at least 5 per cent in the form of a cash contribution from public or private sources. Grants of between £250,000 and £500,000 were offered for projects to deliver over a period of up to three years by March 2025.

1.9. The GLA coordinated a bid to the TCAF on behalf of the London Urban Forest Partnership. Delivery of the LUFP actions has been slow due to lack of capacity and resources in partnership organisations. The TCAF provided an opportunity to build capacity and recruit an LUFP coordinator to provide partnership-wide support. LUFP partners were invited to submit proposals to the GLA for actions they could deliver as part of the bid. Seven partners submitted proposals and worked together with the GLA to develop the final bid.

1.10. An expression of interest to the TCAF was submitted in November 2021, which was shortlisted for a full application. The full application was submitted on 20 January 2022 with notice of its success received on 24 March 2022. The bid includes funding for an LUFP coordinator hosted by the GLA; and eight sub-projects led by LUFP partners, which deliver across the themes of the LUFP and translate the ETAP objectives to the London context (see para 2.4 for details).

1.11. This MD seeks the Mayor’s approval to accept £499,844 from the NLHF and incur expenditure of up to:

• £499,844 (from the NLHF) as per the terms of the Trees Call to Action Fund
• £42,500 approved in the 2022-23 GLA Mayoral Budget under the Green New Deal mission (under cover of MD2954) for tree planting.
  

2.1. The funding will contribute to meeting the objectives of the Green New Deal mission (set out in paragraph 1.3).

2.2. The funding will also contribute to meeting the TCAF’s objectives to build the capacity of organisations working with the trees and forestry sector to deliver the objectives of the ETAP:

• expanding and connecting our trees and woodlands
• trees and woodlands as part of the green economy
• protecting and improving our trees and woodlands
• connecting people with trees and woodlands.

Outcomes

2.3. The funding will accelerate delivery of priority actions in the LUFP to help increase tree planting, and to safeguard and improve the management of existing trees by providing better evidence, advocacy and community support. It will increase the capacity of key delivery partners, enabling them to work more collaboratively, to deliver faster and to achieve more. Projects will be focused on land where existing tree cover is low and across some of London’s most deprived communities. A three-year LUFP coordinator post will be created at the GLA to help deliver, monitor and promote the Plan; and provide essential support to project delivery partners, subject to Chief Officer approval. The coordinator will also manage the TCAF programme coordination, ensuring outputs are delivered, reporting on progress and carrying out evaluation of the programme.

2.4. The outcomes of the programme will be monitored against the ‘Approved Purposes’ of the grant (see para 4.7). Key outcomes of the sub-projects described in the bid are as follows (with project lead organisations in brackets):

• recruitment of a LUFP Project Coordinator to review and update the plan; establish a resource hub; and undertake evaluation (GLA)
• woodland creation advocacy including development of a pan-London woodland creation opportunity and targeted communications map supporting the creation of realistic targets and delivery of woodland cover across London by 2050 (Campaign to Protect Rural England – London)
• updated London woodland condition assessment and indicators template, including a training programme reaching 10 woodland sites and 60 manager representatives, ensuring a consistent approach to determining the quality of London’s woodland (London Wildlife Trust)
• ancient woodland inventory survey of 280 potential ancient woodland sites, to add to datasets to help protect ancient woodland and focus future tree-planting efforts on areas that buffer and connect woodland fragments (Greenspace Information for Greater London)
• development of a London deer management strategy, surveying 50 woodland sites to assess presence and impact; and delivering four regional workshops to disseminate results, ensuring London's woodlands can be made more resilient (London Wildlife Trust)
• the Communities Blossom project, involving development of a community planting programme and pilot street-tree-planting project in Lewisham for local communities and three schools, overseen by a tree-planting coordinator and rolled out across other boroughs (Street Trees for Living)
• tree and woodland skills survey including stakeholder mapping, surveying and a final report, to identify London-specific skills gaps mapped against the national trends being reported by organisations such as the Arboricultural Association; results will feed into the work of the Mayor’s Green Skills Hub (Parks for London)
• Generation Tree, a programme to engage young people in tree planting and care, including 16 engagement events and online engagement through Trees for Cities Community Hub, resulting in three digital resources, alongside 30 community consultation and engagement workshops (Trees for Cities)
• Urban Forest Community Volunteers, a programme to support woodland volunteers and community groups, including recruitment of a Senior Project Officer; data collection; 25 engagement events with under-represented audiences; 80 one-to-one support sessions; a support service; four videos; training for 22 community groups; a woodland volunteering toolkit; forward planning for the Urban Forest Community Network beyond March 2025; and work to deliver 50 hectares of woodland alongside partner tree planting initiatives by 2025 (the Conservation Volunteers (TCV)).

2.5. The programme expenditure is to be administered via a partnership agreement with the seven LUFP delivery partners and is to be phased over three financial years, as profiled in Table 1, below:

Table 1 – overall NLHF grant profile and match funding

2.6. The GLA match funding of £42,500 was included in the GLA’s budget for 2022-23 and is held within the Environment Unit’s revenue “Tree Planting” budget. It will be combined with the other partner match funding provided by Greenspace Information for Greater London, Street Trees for Living and TCV to support sub-projects and meet the total project costs.

2.7. The GLA will claim the NLHF grant funding and distribute this to partners (see paras 4.7, 4.8). Up to £136,167 of the grant funding is allocated to the GLA. This covers the costs of a LUFP coordinator for the programme (1 FTE at Grade 7), up to £3,000 for evaluation and £2,000 for inflation. This is set out in Table 2, below (assuming the role will start in Q2 of 2022-23 and continue to the end of the programme in March 2025).

Table 2 – spend profile for GLA grant income

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; and 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 programmes outlined in this MD form 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 Black, Asian and minority ethnic 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, adult Londoners aged 25 and under, lower-income Londoners, and social renters visit parks less often than other Londoners. National research has found that Black, Asian and minority ethnic people constitute the least likely group to visit green spaces. Similarly, 21 per cent of households in London lack access to a private or shared garden; across England, Black, Asian and minority ethnic 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 work outlined in this MD responds to, and aims to tackle, these disparities. The sub-projects in the TCAF programme will be focused on areas of low tree canopy cover and poor performance against the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. For example, the Communities Blossom sub-project will work with a high percentage of children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, as well as disadvantaged children (e.g., where rates of pupils entitled to the pupil premium and with special educational needs and/or disabilities are higher than average). Work will also take place where many children live in flats without gardens or access to green space, and where schools are close or next to well-known pollution hotspots. The Generation Tree sub-project will focus on young people, and will deliver projects in places with high deprivation and low tree canopy cover. The Urban Forest Community Volunteers sub-project will actively reach out to resident groups, and Black, Asian and minority ethnic-led community groups, in areas of deprivation to encourage and support the involvement of under-represented groups – in particular, supporting people to access training and gain skills. The project support for community groups already active in woodland conservation will include advice on broadening participation from under-represented audiences.

4.1. The key risks associated with the programme are set out in the table below along with relevant mitigation measures:

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.2. The work outlined in this MD will help deliver the GLA commitments to bring nature closer to Londoners; to protect, restore and improve green spaces; to support schools and local communities who wish to create or enhance nearby green space; and to work with charitable donations to create the investment we need to fund mass tree planting, rewilding, pocket parks and greening projects. It will also contribute towards the following:

• London Environment Strategy Policy 5.1.1: to 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 Proposal 5.1.1.f: to back greater community involvement in the improvement and management of London’s green spaces and natural environment.
• London Environment Strategy Objective 5.1: to increase tree canopy cover by 10 per cent, and to ensure that over half of London is green by 2050.
• London Environment Strategy Objective 5.2: conserving and enhancing wildlife and natural habitats.
• London Environment Strategy Policy 5.3.1: to address underinvestment, and improve the management of London’s green infrastructure, by developing new business models and improving the awareness of the benefits of London’s green infrastructure.
• Inclusive London Strategic Objective 12: to 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 Londoners have access to good quality green spaces.
• The London Recovery Board’s high-level outcome to accelerate delivery of a cleaner, greener London; and the 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.

Consultations and impact assessments

4.3. Consultation for the 2018 London Environment Strategy indicated that planting more trees was consistently well supported by Londoners. Respondents also felt that more needed to be done to protect London’s trees; and many had the perception that tree cover in the capital is being reduced.

4.4. The Integrated Impact Assessment for the strategy concluded that no negative effects were identified for the Equality Impact Assessment in relation to strategic green infrastructure polices; and that improving the quality of greenspaces would have positive impacts on addressing inequalities in access to greenspace and nature.

Conflicts of interest

4.5. There are no conflicts of interest to declare from any of those involved in the drafting or clearance of this Decision Form.

Monitoring, reporting, and evaluation

4.6. The TCAF grant will be paid by the NLHF. A Permission to Start form must be completed before the projects can be started and within three months of the date of the Grant Notification Letter (23 March 2022). The Permission to Start form must be completed, with at least two GLA signatures in the Bank Account Details section and a further signature in the Declaration section. Signing the Declaration confirms that the organisation accepts the grant, and agrees to comply with the Grant Contract. The Permission to Start form will also include:

• evidence of secured partnership funding
• a signed funding agreement (a draft unsigned version was submitted with the application)
• a project programme
• a project cash-flow plan
• a project management structure showing names and lines of responsibility
• proposals for procurement.

4.7. Progress must be reported quarterly to the NLHF by completing a Progress Report form online. The progress of the project will be monitored against the Approved Purposes of the grant. Grant claims will be made quarterly in arrears. Project partners will make quarterly grant claims to the GLA, with evidence of expenditure and achievement of milestones and outputs. The GLA will then claim the agreed grant amount from the NLHF. Once the grant has been paid, the GLA will use the funding to pay the project partner organisations.

4.8. Projects receiving funding through TCAF have a grant expiry date of 31 March 2025. The projects must be completed, and a Completion Report, Evaluation Report and Final Payment Request form submitted, by this date.

4.9. Project evaluation will be coordinated by the LUFP Project Coordinator, hosted by the GLA. All the sub-projects have an allocated budget to support quarterly monitoring, reporting and final evaluation. Trees for Cities has an Impact Coordinator who will work with the TCAF project leads and the GLA during the Permission to Start and project setup phase, in order to establish the evaluation framework and baseline data.

5.1 The Greater London Authority has been successful in its bid to secure grant funds from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) for the London Urban Forest Plan (LUFP). Therefore, this decision seeks permission for the receipt and expenditure of £499,844. As the proposal was on behalf of the Authority and its seven LUFP partners, the grant will be distributed as per section 2.5. The funds will cover three financial years, starting from 2022 and ending in 2025.

5.2 Of the £499,844, the GLA will utilise £136,167 for a LUFP coordinator who will provide partnership wide support by ensuring outputs have been delivered and report on progress. The remaining balance will go to the project partners who will be delivering the LUFP themes and objectives.

5.3 Expenditure will be incurred first by the GLA and its project partners and then recovered on a quarterly basis from the NLHF. As the only recipient of the grant, the Authority is classed as the accountable body and will therefore be responsible for ensuring all expenditure sustained is eligible.

5.4 Appropriate funding contracts will be drawn up for the seven project partners which cap expenditure to the contained grant and will only be issued in arrears on achievement of milestones. The Authority will not absorb any overspends or unqualified expenditure.

5.5 The grant requires a minimum of 5% to be match funded. If approved, this decision will allow the GLA to match 9% (£42,500) which will be funded by the Tree Planting budget held within the Environment 2022-23 budget. The project partners have already secured their match funds separately as per section 2.3 and as such will be evidenced in their grant claims.

6.1. The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

• the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or that are facilitative of, or conducive or incidental to, the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London
• 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
  • consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2. In taking the decisions requested, 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, and foster good relations, between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (as set out in the Equality Act 2010) and persons who do not (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. If the Mayor makes the decisions sought, officers must ensure that:

• they are satisfied that they can comply fully with the terms of the NHLF funding; and do not rely upon this until all necessary Permission to Start forms have been completed and signed
• to the extent that expenditure concerns the:
  • award of grant funding: it is distributed fairly, transparently, in manner that affords value for money, and in accordance with the requirements of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code; and grant-funding agreements are put in place between, and executed by, the GLA and recipients before any commitment to fund is made
  • payment for services: those services 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
  • payment for staffing resourcing at the GLA: if such staffing is to be covered by establishing any new roles, they comply fully with the GLA’s “establishment control” procedures.
    

Appendix 1 - Heritage Fund Grant notification letter