Mayor invests £4.6 million to boost London’s green and blue spaces and build a more climate resilient city

Mayor invests £4.6 million to boost London’s green and blue spaces and build a more climate resilient city 

• Mayor awards £3.5m to 33 local community projects through second round of his Green Roots Fund to improve London’s green and blue spaces and boost our climate resilience   
• A further £1.1m in new funding for a large‑scale tree equity project, delivering up to 5,000 climate resilient trees in key neighbourhoods affected by climate change 
• Organisations and community groups can apply for the next round of the Mayor’s Green Roots Fund, with applications closing on 28 May.   

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has awarded over £4.6 million to local community projects across London to boost the city’s green spaces and climate resilience.   

Announced as the Chelsea Flower Show begins today, the second round of the Mayor’s £12 million Green Roots Fund is delivering £3.5m to community projects and boroughs through grants ranging from £10,000 to £500,000. This is about supporting London’s neighbourhoods to bring nature back to making the city more climate resilient.   

Sadiq launched the Green Roots Fund last summer, delivering on his manifesto commitment to improve and enhance London’s green and blue spaces. The programme supports communities to transform their local spaces, including parks, community gardens, wetlands and rivers. Projects awarded in this round include:    

• £358,600 for The Tree Council’s Young Tree Champions Living Labs project, which trains teachers and young people skills to grow a healthier, more resilient school environment through tree-planting. This will be focused in areas of social deprivation, where risk from the impacts of climate change are higher.
• £80,500 to Natural Neighbours in Hackney, who will transform two sites - Priory Court (Kings Park) and Homerton Grove Adventure Playground - in the borough into habitat-rich wildlife gardens for residents to enjoy and to train ‘Natural Champions’ from the local community to nurture and maintain them.
• £30,000 to Spitalfields Crypt Trust, which will support people who have experienced homelessness and addiction, teaching them practical gardening skills and empowering them to help revitalise a public garden in Shoreditch. 

An additional £1.1m has been allocated to a large-scale tree equity project which will make it easier to plant trees in hotter, more flood prone and polluted neighbourhoods. Increasing the number of trees in London will help tackle the ‘Urban Heat Island’ effect, absorbing the sun’s rays and cooling the city, reducing flood risk and helping to make London more climate resilient. The funding will also enable the planting of up to 5,000 trees, alongside investment in protecting and enhancing existing ones. Guided by local communities and boroughs, it will help to improve access to trees and shade, protecting Londoners in communities that need it most as our climate gets hotter. 

Access to green spaces has proven benefits on the physical and mental wellbeing of Londoners, yet research shows more than one in five households in London have no access to a garden. The Mayor sees access to nature as a social justice issue, and his Grow Back Greener Fund awarded over £4 million to 135 community-led projects between 2020 and 2023, prioritising areas of deprivation with poor access to nature. The Green Roots Fund builds on this work by empowering and equipping communities to create and improve their local green and blue spaces. 

The first round of the Mayor’s Green Roots Fund, with awards announced in October 2025, delivered £3.5 million to 26 projects. This included:  

• £500,000  to Thames21 and Enfield Council to improve three kilometres of river and the surrounding land in the Salmons Brook catchment in Enfield. This will restore the river to its natural condition, improving habitats for wildlife and river health, as well as creating opportunities for local communities affected by flooding to get involved through volunteering and citizen science programmes. 
• £49,729 to Lambeth Living Streets to help divert rainwater from the roofs of blocks of flats on Brockwell Park Estate – helping to prevent flooding by creating rain gardens and engaging the community in greening the estate and surrounding areas. 
• £10,000 to Kingston Society for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities to create an accessible garden at Searchlight Community Centre for those with disabilities, co-designed with the community.   

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:  

“I am delighted to award the second round of funding from my Green Roots Fund to support 33 brilliant organisations and community groups to deliver more green, blue and climate resilient spaces for our city. In addition, communities in areas most affected by rising temperatures will benefit from thousands of new trees.  

“Everyone should have access to nature, which is why we’re empowering London’s communities to transform their neighbourhoods through these new blue and green spaces. I urge Londoners to get involved and apply for the next round of funding, closing later this month. Increasing access to nature whilst helping to ensure the city can cope with climate change is a vital part of how we can continue to deliver a greener, healthier and fairer London for everyone.”  

The Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Mete Coban, visited William Torbitt School in Redbridge to meet teachers and young people who are part of the Tree Council’s Young Tree Champions Living Labs project, a Green Roots Fund grant recipient. He said:  

“It was so inspiring to meet the Tree Council’s Young Tree Champions and hear about their work to transform their school into a greener, healthier place to learn—keeping them cool in the face of rising temperatures. 

“Alongside planting up to 5,000 new trees where they’re needed most, we’re announcing 33 new Green Roots Fund projects that will empower communities to reintroduce nature and boost their climate resilience. 

“The benefits of nature should be for everyone, and - like the Mayor - I am committed to making this a reality for all Londoners.” 

Since taking office in 2016, the Mayor has worked to restore and revitalise London’s natural spaces. This has included the planting of over 640,000 trees, including two major woodland creation projects, and an additional 900 hectares of green space has been improved or created - the equivalent of more than 2,000 football pitches. 

He has restored 3.7km of river and, by launching a 10-year action plan this year, will make continued progress on cleaning up London’s waterways, decreasing pollution, restoring biodiversity and making them safe and accessible to everyone.   

Sarah Lom, CEO at the Tree Council said:  

“We were delighted to welcome the Deputy Mayor to William Torbitt School and showcase how young people are leading the way in tackling climate change.  

“The Green Roots funding is helping us bring our Young Tree Champions Living Labs project to 50 schools over the next 2 years, in areas facing some of the greatest climate challenges and inequalities. 

“This is about so much more than planting trees. It’s about giving young people the tools, skills and confidence to lead real change in their schools and communities—helping to create greener, healthier places to live, now and for the future.” 

Ivo Gormley Founder of Good Gym said:   

“Thanks to support from the Mayor’s Green Roots Fund, we’re scaling up our work to support thousands more young Londoners to grow and maintain green spaces in their communities. 

“Many Londoners don’t have access to as much green space as they’d like. That’s why we’re engaging a new generation and training young leaders, to help to make the city greener in a way that’s positive, social and fun. 

“This hands-on environmental work, from planting and litter picking, to restoring habitats and improving the health of our rivers, is helping to make a London a greener city. That’s a positive thing for all of us and everyone is invited to help make it happen."