MD3438 Grant from the Mayoral Renewables Fund for West London solar projects

1.1.    This project will support five west London boroughs (Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Hounslow) to fund solar photovoltaics (PV) to reduce energy bills and generate local energy. It aligns with the workstream to reduce emissions from London’s buildings in the Reducing Non-Residential Emissions programme.

1.2.    In August 2025, the GLA submitted a bid to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ’s) Mayoral Renewables Fund (MRF) for £750,000 of funding, to support nine sites across west London. These sites comprise four schools, four community centres and a council office. Projects eligible for the MRF must have spent their funding by 31 March 2026. As such, sites were selected based on deliverability and ability to mobilise at pace. This selection drew on analysis from the 399 sites identified in the West London Solar PV Deployment Strategy, developed by the Mayor of London’s Infrastructure Coordination Service in 2025.

1.3.    The capital cost of designing and installing solar is £715,500, which will be funded by the MRF grant. The revenue cost is £34,500, which will be used to procure a technical partner, in line with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code. 

1.4.    Given some of these sites are schools, insights from this project will be shared with the Greener Schools Pilot. The Mayor is committed to supporting schools to implement net-zero interventions to improve the learning environment for young Londoners, cut fuel bills for schools, and contribute towards London becoming a net zero-carbon city.

1.5.    This decision also seeks approval for an amendment to the Reducing Non-Residential Emissions delivery plan. This amendment would be to include the project detailed in this decision form. Authority is also sought to delegate to the Assistant Director for Environment and Energy to make those necessary amendments. 

1.6.    Authority is also sought to delegate, to the Assistant Director for Environment and Energy, the expenditure of funding to deliver the project, including appointing the technical adviser.

1.7.    The Assistant Director, Environment and Energy, will ensure compliance with the obligations set out in the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014. These set out when written records of decisions and their content need to be published. Director Decisions and Assistant Director Decisions will be required, where appropriate, to meet these transparency requirements, including in instances where GLA funds are paid to external organisations.
 

2.1.    The objective of this project is to install solar PV and battery storage on sites, with the following expected outcomes:

•    financial savings across the nine sites, expected to exceed £82,000 per year
•    an estimated 54.9t CO2e saved over the project lifetime.

2.2.    This project will be created within the Reducing Non-Residential Emissions programme. It primarily contributes to the core London-level outcome being pursued by the Reducing Non-Residential Emissions programme: London is a net-zero city. This work also supports a core outcome for the Upgrading London’s Infrastructure programme: stable, long-term economic growth that benefits all of London’s communities.

2.3.    This funding offers the GLA an opportunity to take forward some solar sites that would not otherwise proceed to delivery. That these sites are in west London is particularly important, given the acute grid capacity constraints in that area. This project also builds on the success of the Greener Schools initiative: the four schools sites funded here cover four additional boroughs that were not successful in the original Greener Schools funding round.

2.4.    The success measures for this project will be: 

•    boroughs complete solar PV installations on time (by 31 March 2026)
•    the GLA receives positive feedback from boroughs in relation to the GLA managing the grant (e.g. releasing monies in a timely manner). 
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA is subject to the public sector equality duty and must have due regard to the need to:

•    eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation
•    advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not
•    foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.

3.2.    Protected characteristics under section 4 of the Act are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sex orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (all except the last being “relevant” protected characteristics).

3.3.    The GLA has taken appropriate steps to ensure there are no potential negative impacts on those with protected characteristics in relation to the development, design, targeting, marketing, and delivery of the scheme. This has been done by ensuring compliance with the Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy; and developing and testing in line with GLA guidance on equalities and diversity. This grant funding will be allocated to schools and public buildings which serve local communities, including people with protected characteristics. Those with protected characteristics will gain from the positive benefits of this scheme in equal measure.

3.4.    This project will deliver renewable energy to schools and public buildings, raising awareness of renewable energy and bill saving to groups who may not normally have had access to such technology (e.g. school pupils, members of varied faith groups, local resident association members, art centre visitors, etc). Three of these sites are being delivered in areas of high deprivation (between the second and fourth deciles of Index of Multiple Deprivation).
 

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.1.    As set out in section 2, above, the Mayor is invited to approve the inclusion of this project in the Reducing Non-Residential Emissions programme, created as a project within the delivery plan; and to approve the amendments of the delivery plan accordingly. To help track and monitor project delivery, within the Reducing Non-Residential Emissions programme, it is recommended that we track the success measures set out at paragraph 2.4, above, and milestones set out at paragraph 7.1, below, as part of our quarterly performance and finance monitoring cycle. These will be added to appropriate documentation.

4.2.    In addition, this project will contribute towards the outcomes targeted by the Upgrading London’s Infrastructure programme. It builds on a strategic, area-based solar study developed by the Mayor’s Infrastructure Coordination Service, which prioritised sites for solar PV deployment based on known electricity grid constraints. Site selections were informed by this evidence, supplemented by borough insights. 

4.3.    The project will contribute towards a broad range of objectives, policy and proposals in the London Environment Strategy, including: 

•    proposal 6.1.3a (Provide direct technical support and assistance to help reduce CO2 emissions and energy within the public sector) 
•    proposal 6.2.1b (Increase the amount of solar generation in London)
•    policy 6.1.3 (Improve the energy efficiency and support the transition to low carbon heating and power) 
•    policy 6.2.1 (Delivering more decentralised energy in London).

4.4.    The project also assists the delivery of the Mayor’s Solar Action Plan to “encourage public sector organisations and providers of social housing to retrofit solar energy technologies on buildings by promoting the use of technical assistance programmes”.

Relevance to other local and national initiatives

4.5.    This project aligns with the objectives of the Climate Change Act 2008 and related strategies, including Powering Up Britain: Net Zero Growth Plan; Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards; and the Heat and Buildings Strategy. 

Key risks

4.6.    The key risks to the delivery of this project are set out in the table below:

Conflicts of interest

4.7.    None of the officers involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form have any conflicts of interest to declare.

Subsidy control

4.8.    The Subsidy Control Act 2022 requires that grant funding complies with its subsidy control principles. Officers have assessed the proposed award of funding, and are satisfied that it does not constitute the provision of a subsidy. This is because it does not meet the four-limbed test set out in the statutory guidance to determine if a subsidy is present. Specifically, the recipients of the funding will be:

•    local authorities engaged in the discharge of their statutory duties, and not providing services, works or supplies on markets for the same; and so are not considered to be acting as “enterprises” 

•    acting as intermediaries, passing on the benefit of the funding to the relevant public buildings (in procuring works and supplies for the benefit of those public buildings); and so will not receive any “selective advantage”.

5.1.    This MD seeks approval to receive £750,000 from DESNZ in the form of grant funding, to support nine sites across five west London boroughs.

5.2.    The capital part of this grant, totalling £715,500, is being transferred to the GLA as capital funding, so will be accounted for within the GLA’s Capital Programme. All expenditure will have to fit into the definition of capital expenditure for accountancy purposes. A new project and budget line will be created in the Reducing Non-Residential Emissions programme budget. 

5.3.    The remaining funding from DESNZ will be revenue funding, used to fund a technical partner to support oversight of delivery at each of the nine sites. This budget will be added as a new project budget within the Reducing Non-Residential Emissions programme and tracked as part of the GLA’s quarterly performance and finance reporting.

5.4.    It is expected that spend of this grant will be completed in 2025-26 and managed by the Environment and Energy Unit. All appropriate budget adjustments will be made.
 

Power to undertake the requested decision

6.1.    Under section 30(1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the GLA Act), the Mayor acting on behalf of the GLA has the power to do anything that he considers will further any one or more of the GLA’s principal purposes, which are:

•    promoting economic development and wealth creation in Greater London
•    promoting social development in Greater London
•    promoting the improvement of the environment in Greater London.

6.2.    In deciding whether or how to exercise the general power in section 30(1), section 30(4) of the GLA Act requires the GLA to have regard to the effect which the proposed exercise of the power would have on:

•    the health of persons in Greater London
•    health inequalities between persons living in Greater London
•    the achievement of sustainable development in the UK
•    climate change, and the consequences of climate change.

6.3.    Where the GLA exercises the power under section 30(1), pursuant to section 30(5) it must do so in the way it considers is best calculated to:

•    promote improvements in the health of persons in Greater London
•    promote the reduction of health inequalities between persons living in Greater London
•    contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the UK
•    contribute towards the mitigation of, or adaptation to, climate change, in the UK.

6.4.    The GLA must also make arrangements with a view to securing that in the exercise of the power in section 30(1) there is due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people in accordance with section 33 of the GLA Act and consult with such bodies or persons as the GLA may consider appropriate in this particular case in accordance with section 32 of the GLA Act.

6.5.    Under section 34 of the GLA Act, the GLA, acting by the Mayor, the Assembly, or both jointly, 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; or, as the case may be, by the Assembly, or by both acting jointly. The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s powers under section 30 and section 34 of the GLA Act.

6.6.    Under section 38 of the GLA Act, any function exercisable by the Mayor on behalf of the GLA may also be exercised by a member of the GLA’s staff – albeit subject to any conditions that the Mayor sees fit to impose. To this end, the Mayor may make the requested delegations to the Assistant Director, Environment and Energy, subject to the conditions and requirements set out in this Mayoral Decision.

6.7.    In taking any decisions sought, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty – under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

6.8.    If the Mayor makes the decisions sought, the Assistant Director, Environment and Energy must comply with the obligations set out in The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 when taking decisions in accordance with the delegation set out in this decision form. In particular regulation 7 which provides that where a decision has been delegated to an officer either (a) under a specific express authorisation or (b) under a general authorisation and the effect of the decision is to award a contract or incur expenditure which, in either case, materially affects the GLA’s financial position, the officer to whom the delegation has been made must produce a written record of the decision (regulation 7(1) and (2)). Regulation 7(3) provides that the written record must be produced as soon as reasonably practicable after the decision has been taken and must contain the date the decision was taken, a record of the decision taken with reasons, details of options considered and rejected, if any, and where a decision is delegated under a specific express authorisation, any conflicts of interest. Regulation 8 provides that the written record, together with any background papers, must as soon as reasonably practicable after the record is made, be made available for inspection by members of the public including on the GLA’s website.

Subsidy control

6.9.    The Subsidy Control Act 2022 requires that grant funding is assessed in relation to its four-limbed test. Officers have made this assessment at paragraph 4.8, above; and have concluded that the proposed funding does not amount to a subsidy.

6.10.    Officers must ensure that: the services required are procured in liaison with TfL Procurement and in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code; and a contract is put in place between and executed by the GLA and the supplier before commencement of the services.
 

7.1.    Following approval of this Decision, officers will take the funding forward for implementation under the following timetable.