MD3496 GLA Portfolio Changes 2026-27

1.1.    The GLA delivery portfolio is the collection of programmes, projects and policies that ensure the GLA (in its role as London’s strategic authority) contributes towards achieving the Mayor’s strategic outcomes for London. This activity has been brigaded into a set of programmes, which the Mayor has commissioned the GLA to deliver. Between June 2025 and January 2026, a delivery plan for each programme was approved by Mayoral Decision form, as listed at Appendix 1.

1.2.    The GLA delivery portfolio is constantly reviewed to ensure it remains deliverable, affordable, and aligned with strategic priorities. As part of our strengthened governance processes, a more structured and timely approach to assessing new and emerging proposals entering the GLA portfolio is being introduced. The outcomes of this on-going process of review have also informed this update, ensuring that the portfolio reflects both strategic alignment and realistic delivery capacity.

1.3.    The purpose of the programmes, as set out in the mandates, and the strategic outcomes for London they are designed to support, have not changed. However, the associated delivery plans now require some amendments to reflect changes in the GLA’s budget for 2026-27 which was approved on 27 February 2026. Delivery plans were always intended to be living documents that change to reflect the latest work of the GLA to deliver the Mayor’s priority outcomes for Londoners. These amendments are necessary to ensure the GLA’s delivery portfolio remains deliverable within the revised financial envelope and reflects the updated prioritisation arising from the additional allocations made during the 2026-27 budget process. These changes necessitate updates to programmes by the addition of new projects, amendments to existing projects, success measures and milestones across several programmes as shown in Appendix 3. 

1.4.    A schedule of changes for the programmes covered in this Mayoral Decision is attached at Appendix 3. It lists all of the changes known at the time of writing. 

1.5.    The delivery plans for each programme will be updated as a result of this MD. The changes will also be made in the GLA’s programme management system which will hold up to date real time versions of the delivery plan for each programme. This ensures that the live portfolio reflects the revised scope, milestones, success measures, sequencing and resource allocations resulting from the 2026 27 Budget. This data will then be used to generate the quarterly performance reports that will be reviewed internally, ultimately by the MDB and its committees, and subsequently submitted to the London Assembly and published. 

1.6.    In addition, as a result of organisational changes, the Mayor is requested to approve some changes to the SROs that he originally appointed through the delivery plan Mayoral decisions. They are set out in Appendix 1. These changes do not alter the scope of the existing delegations, which will apply to the new SROs. This Mayoral Decision is also seeking a delegation to the GLA’s Chief Officer to be able to designate and change any standing designations of SROs in consultation with the MDB. However, any SRO change that is strategically significant, cross cutting, politically sensitive, or that materially affects Mayoral priorities is reserved to the Mayor.

1.7.    The previous Mayoral Decisions that approved the programmes and their associated delivery plans (as set out in Appendix 1) set out three categories that projects fell under:

(i)    projects which were already set out in detail in an existing Mayoral Decision (MD) or Director Decision (DD) or Assistant Director Decision (ADD)
(ii)    projects for which that Mayoral Decision sought Mayoral delegation to the SRO to take expenditure decisions
(iii)    projects which would require separate Mayoral Decisions.

1.8.    These categories will continue to apply to the delivery plans as amended by this Mayoral Decision. All previous delegations and decisions in the original relevant delivery plan MDs will remain in force, including those delegations to SRO’s to receive and spend additional income for projects contained within the programme. The SRO would not gain expenditure authority through the approval of this MD; that authority already exists by virtue of the delegations to the SRO in the MDs originally approving the respective delivery plans. Accordingly, future decisions in relation to projects in the delivery plans as amended by this MD will continue to be taken in accordance with (i) to (iii) at paragraph 1.7 above, and this is reflected in the column in Appendix 3 identified as ‘Future governance route.’ 

1.9.    Updates to existing delivery plans will be made under a new delegation to each SRO to have the authority to make all amendments to the relevant delivery plans that are necessary to give effect to the decisions approved by this Mayoral Decision. We are also seeking the authority for SROs to make future amendments to delivery plans where such amendments arise from the operation of the Change Control process established under the Mayoral Decision-Making Framework. This delegated authority applies to amendments that are: consequential to changes approved the Mayor through the Change Control process; or are otherwise approved through that process and the amendments are required to maintain alignment between delivery plans and the approved portfolio structure, project definitions, strategic narrative or delivery expectations or are administrative in nature.

1.10.    Delivery of several projects in the programmes will span multiple financial years. The associated expenditure will need to be profiled accurately across future years. Where known, this has been set out in Appendix 3. Profiling will be refined as projects progress through mobilisation and delivery planning and will be reflected in our quarterly performance and finance monitoring. Any carry forward to future years will be managed as part of the GLA’s financial processes.
 

2.1.    The objective of this decision is to ensure that financial and other resources are used in the most effective way to deliver the GLA’s delivery portfolio. 

2.2.    Each programme within the delivery portfolio has a specific set of success measures and milestones as well as the relevant strategic outcome for London which it is monitored against. This decision sets and agrees those success measures and milestones where there has been a change. 
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Mayor and GLA must comply with the public sector equality duty (PSED) and must have due regard to the need to:

•    eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act
•    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.    The ‘protected characteristics’ are: age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership (but only in respect of the requirements to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination), race (ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, and sexual orientation. 

3.3.    Consideration of the PSED is not a one-off task. The duty must be fulfilled before taking a decision, at the time of taking a decision, and after the decision has been taken, to ensure that equalities impacts are kept under ongoing review.

3.4.    Appendix 3 sets out under the ‘impact of change’ column the outcome of assessments against the Duty to date.

3.5.    The equality impacts of all programmes and the projects within them will be kept under review as appropriate to ensure that the PSED is complied with on an ongoing basis.
 

Key risks and issues 

4.1.    The ongoing portfolio review process is designed to mitigate the risks that:

•    funding is not aligned to Mayoral priorities in an efficient and effective way 
•    the programmes become dated and do not reflect latest available resources and policy thinking 
•    organisational delivery capacity is not prioritised if developments are not managed through a structured review and assessment process.

Links to Mayoral delivery plans and other strategies and priorities

 
4.2.    Appendix 3 sets out a rationale for updating each programme to ensure they remain the most effective responses to the Mayor’s mandates and contribute to the delivery of London-Level outcomes.

4.3.    There are no conflicts of interest from anyone involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form. 
 

5.1.     The changes set out in this decision form reflect the allocations approved for the GLA in 2026-27, as published in the GLA: Mayor Budget (MD3488). Several projects within these programmes will span multiple financial years, so the associated expenditure will need to be accurately profiled across future years. Wherever profiling information is available this is set out in Appendix 3. Further information will be captured in future decisions exercised under the delegations to the SROs sought in this Mayoral Decision. 

5.2.    Profiling will be refined as projects progress through mobilisation and delivery planning and will also be reported quarterly performance and finance monitoring from Quarter 2 2026–27. Carry forward to future years will be managed as part of the GLA’s financial processes.
 

6.1.    The legal comments in the Mayoral Decisions identified in Appendix 1 set out the Mayor’s powers to: (i) approve the establishment of relevant programmes, with identified officers as SROs; (ii) approve the respective delivery plans and the allocation of resources to those plans and (iii) and delegations of authorities to SROs to approve income and expenditure related decisions as identified in those Mayoral Decisions. 

6.2.    The legal provisions identified within those legal comments confer the relevant powers for the Mayor to approve the decisions sought in this Mayoral Decision (MD3496). 

6.3    Under section 38(1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999, the Mayor may delegate the exercise of any functions exercisable on behalf of the Authority by the Mayor to, amongst others, any GLA member of staff and subject to any conditions that the Mayor sees fit to impose. To this end, the Mayor may approve the delegations requested in this decision, if he so chooses.