MD3032 Tree Planting Programme 2022-24

1.1.    The Mayor 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 Mayor has committed to a Green New Deal for London, combining strong economic recovery with action to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies creating green jobs and opportunities for all Londoners. 

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 Greater London Authority (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 cover. Increasing London’s tree canopy by 10% by 2050, from 21% to 23% is a target within the London Environment Strategy and the London Urban Forest Plan. Increasing tree canopy cover has positive effects in relation to the Urban Heat Island effect and air quality, as well as 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. The extreme temperatures experienced in Summer 2022 demonstrated how vulnerable London is to the effects of climate change. The heatwaves and recent surface water flooding have reinforced the urgency of the need to increase tree canopy cover as part of helping limit the impacts of the climate emergency and ecological crisis. This tree planting programme is therefore particularly aimed at planting trees for shade, on streets and in playgrounds and green spaces. Street trees can help reduce surrounding air temperature by 3 degrees Celsius and underlying surface temperature by 11 degrees.  

1.6.    This tree planting package builds on work the Mayor has already been doing to support tree planting and green infrastructure. Since 2016 the Mayor has funded the planting of over 430,000 trees across London, including two major woodland creation projects, creating an additional 85 hectares of new accessible green space in the Green Belt. The Mayor has invested over £24m in green infrastructure programmes supporting green space projects in all boroughs and the City of London.  

1.7.    This MD seeks the Mayor’s approval of expenditure of up to:

• £0.957m in 2022-23  
• £2.178m in 2023-24*
• £0.465m in 2024-25*

*subject to future budget confirmation and related approvals  

1.8.    The proposed programme covers a package of tree planting and supporting work. These projects and programmes are listed at paragraph 2.4 in Table 1 and summarised below (in paragraphs 1.9-1.17). These programmes are aimed at increasing tree canopy cover in London through several different and complementary approaches. The programmes will support and encourage boroughs, community groups, schools, Londoners and businesses to plant trees on streets, in green spaces and playgrounds and on walking routes. The programmes work with several organisations in the London Urban Forest Partnership which is a network of organisations that collaborate to protect, manage and enhance the capital's trees and woodlands.  

1.9.    It is proposed to top up the existing Grow Back Greener round 3 grants with £800,000 of funding specifically to support tree planting projects (£1.2m for creating and improving green spaces was already approved by the Mayor under cover of MD2827 and £125k for climate resilience projects approved by the Executive Director, Good Growth, under cover of DD2583). This new funding will be prioritised for tree planting projects in areas of the city with low tree canopy cover and high climate risk. Having a tree planting strand of grants was a successful approach from 2017-2020 when the Community Tree Planting Grants (part of the Greener City Fund) awarded over £1.3m to more than 80 projects to plant nearly 100,000 trees. These new Grow Back Greener tree planting grants will fund projects that will start from December 2022 and be completed by December 2023. This grant scheme will build on the success of the first two rounds of Grow Back Greener which were heavily oversubscribed. 

1.10.    A “London Community Tree Packs” programme will offer free packs of 50 trees to community groups, faith groups and schools in partnership with the charity The Conservation Volunteers (TCV). Trees can be planted to form hedgerows or new woodland areas (with landowner permission) in playgrounds or green spaces, for example helping to form barriers between school playgrounds and busy roads to help reduce air pollution. TCV also offer advice and support to applicants in planting trees and running community planting events. TCV already run a national tree pack scheme and submitted a proposal to the GLA for additional resources for a scheme for London. This Programme will be run twice, once per planting season (Winter 2022 and, subject to budget approval being obtained, 2023), with the goal of establishing 30,000 new trees in each year. This programme will build on the success of similar previous schemes, for example in 2019 the GLA worked with TCV to distribute 25,000 trees to 233 community groups many of whom also organised volunteering events. 

1.11.    To support tree planting, the programme includes supporting Trees for Streets, an innovative national tree sponsorship platform managed by charity Trees for Cities (TfC), an established member of the London Urban Forest Partnership who the GLA has worked with on many previous tree planting programmes. Piloting an online platform to facilitate corporate and public sponsorship to support street tree planting and maintenance across London is a key action in the London Urban Forest Plan coordinated by the GLA and the Forestry Commission. The Trees for Streets proposal is for the Mayor to match-sponsor up to 1000 semi-mature trees (mainly in streets), with the majority being planted this coming winter and any remaining by the end of 2023. Working with Trees for Streets will empower Londoners to have an opportunity to select, sponsor and look after trees outside their homes. The platform also enables businesses to sponsor trees, and a London page will be set up to encourage this. Trees for Streets currently works with five London councils: Croydon, Harrow, Haringey, Hillingdon and Tower Hamlets, and are planning on expanding to Merton, Barnet, and Ealing this year, while other boroughs are in discussion. This programme will also offer funding to support more boroughs to join the platform. 

1.12.    Street tree planting this winter is also already being supported through the GLA co-ordinated bid to the government’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund 2021-23 (approved by the Mayor under cover of MD2909) which will see 7963 street trees planted across 22 boroughs (of which over 3600 were planted last winter). However, there are barriers to scaling up street tree planting in future years. These include a lack of tree officer time in boroughs, a lack of knowledge of potential street tree pits and issues with borough tree contractors (including difficulty sourcing trees at short notice, capacity to plant and maintain trees, and the costs involved). It is therefore crucial to plan planting well in advance of the 2023-24 planting season and to support boroughs to do so in a more strategic way, particularly in areas of low canopy cover and where boroughs have not had the capacity to join previous UTCF bids.   

1.13.    From the London Tree Officers Association (LTOA) biennial benchmarking survey (2020) we know four of eighteen responding boroughs did not hold location details of their “vacant” tree pits (pits that have previously had trees planted in them). Not included in the LTOA survey is whether boroughs hold information on “potential” tree pits (locations that could have a tree planted where there has never been a tree). GLA officer conversations with boroughs suggest that one borough has recently carried out such a survey, but that the majority of boroughs do not hold this information and tree planting locations are often not planned systematically.  The LTOA agreed that physical surveys for potential pits would be a very useful tool to increase tree planting. Co-ordinating such surveys at a London scale offers economies of scale, supports boroughs with limited capacity, and ensures that the data collected is gathered in a format which can be used for UTCF applications (e.g. location data) and used by boroughs and the GLA Infrastructure and Green Infrastructure teams for mapping and programme delivery. The Infrastructure team are also working on how the data they hold on underground services could be used to target physical surveys.  Whilst the ambition is to work with all boroughs who would like to participate in surveying, boroughs with low tree canopy cover and high climate risk will be prioritised. 

1.14.    Information gathered about “potential” tree planting locations will help make the case at a borough and national level for the opportunity for increasing tree planting in London. The data collected through borough surveys in 2022-23 will inform a bid to the government’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund which is due to reopen for applications in Spring 2023 for planting in Autumn/Winter 2023-24. It is proposed that the GLA would again co-ordinate such an application and up to £0.5m is allocated to match fund that bid, which it is anticipated could lever in £3-4m from government.  

1.15.    The UTCF grant pays for large ‘standard’ trees (circa 5 years old and 3m in height). These trees will provide many benefits (para 1.5). However, trees planted in sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) can be even more effective in helping tackle surface water flooding and support tree growth. This could include tree planting in SuDS tree pits or trenches, rain gardens or swales. A study in Manchester found that a normal street tree can retain 43% of rainfall, whereas a SuDS street tree can retain 78% . Planting trees in SuDS can also enable the planting of larger trees, due to a larger volume of soil, which will also contribute to providing more shade and cooling. Trees provide the most effective shade when healthy and in full leaf, which is linked to water availability.   It is proposed that the GLA offer to “top up” UTCF funding to boroughs in 2023-24 in locations of high climate risk to support the creation of more expensive SuDS tree pits. 

1.16.    The programmes outlined above will support small scale tree planting in green spaces and schools (via Grow Back Greener and Community Tree Packs) on streets and public spaces (via Trees for Streets and the UTCF). In addition to these mechanisms, it is also proposed to have a “Call for Sites” for larger and more ambitious tree planting projects. These large-scale projects can help contribute to the Mayor’s canopy cover targets and demonstrate London’s commitment to increasing tree planting. These projects could include new woodlands in the Green Belt or Metropolitan Open Land (noting that the Mayor has supported two large scale woodland creation projects which were completed in March 2022, see MD2529) or more complex urban tree planting projects to transform low canopy cover areas, such as new avenues in high footfall locations. This Call for Sites could be issued as part of the second round of the Green and Resilient Spaces Fund this autumn (subject to future Mayoral approval being obtained in advance). These larger-scale projects require a longer delivery time as they are likely to require permissions such as environmental impact assessments or planning permission. It is proposed to hold a competitive call for projects this autumn, open to local authorities, civil society organisations and other landowners and managers. Any funded site would need to be accessible to the public. Funded projects would have up to two years for project delivery from April 2023-March 2025. 

1.17.    The new trees programme will be managed by the GLA’s Green Infrastructure (GI) team. The GI team is already at capacity managing several grant programmes as well as taking on new responsibilities related to the London Local Nature Recovery Strategy arising from the Environment Act. As such it is proposed to create an additional fixed term post (1 FTE) to manage this programme, this is included in Table 1 below and will be subject to approval via Chief Officer form. In addition to managing the programmes outlined above, the new member of staff will co-ordinate the creation and updating of webpages and liaise internally at the GLA and with partners about communications for the programme. They will also work with boroughs, Green Space Information for Greater London (GiGL) and delivery partners (particularly Trees for Streets) to improve and update the London Street Tree Map and other relevant maps and data in order to capture the tree planting activity across the programme and encourage Londoners to get involved. 

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 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.  National research has found that Black, Asian and minority ethnic 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, 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 proposed work outlined in this MD responds to, and aims to tackle, these disparities. The tree planting supported by Trees for Streets, Grow Back Greener and the Urban Tree Challenge Fund will be focussed in areas of low tree canopy cover, high climate risk and poor performance against the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. Tree canopy is significant in terms of resilience to the effects of climate change (higher temperatures) while reduced or limited canopy cover is significantly detrimental to people’s ability to cope with and adapt to environmental challenges. The Community Tree Packs project will actively reach out to community groups, residents groups and faith groups and encourage them to get involved in tree planting – in particular enabling Londoners without access to a garden to participate.

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

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.2.    The proposed work outlined in this MD will help deliver Mayoral commitments to bring nature closer to Londoners; and to catalyse the investment needed to fund mass tree planting. It will also 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 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 Objective 5.1: 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: 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: 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.
• 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.

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 EqIA 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.    Projects within the programme will have grant agreements with the GLA which will include requirements to monitor and report on project progress. Final reporting will include evidence of expenditure and achievements of milestones and outputs. The programme also includes work to improve data on London’s current street trees and future potential street trees. Programme evaluation will be coordinated by the GLA project manager. 

4.7.    The GLA’s Environment Team has committed to producing updates to the London Tree Canopy Map every five years, allowing us to track the cumulative effect of planting programmes such as this.

5.1.     £3.6m is required to invest in the planting of trees in the capital.

5.2.    The proposed profile for this expenditure is as follows:

5.3.    £3.1m will be funded from identified underspends from across the GLA in 2021-22 whilst the balance of £0.5m will come from the Tree Planting budget in 2023-24. This is in line with the 2023-24 indicative budget however this has not been formally agreed. As such this poses a risk as these funds are subject to change; particularly over the next Mayoral term. Therefore, to mitigate against this, any contractual commitments which span past 2022-23 will include the appropriate break clauses and any deliverables, milestones and/or output requirements should be structured so as to enable the GLA to withdraw from such schemes without incurring undue abortive costs.

5.4.    The £3.1m will be held in reserves and drawn upon in each year when required.

6.1.    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

• 6.1.1    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 which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London
• 6.1.2    in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers have complied with the GLA’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 (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion) 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:

• 6.3.1    no reliance should be placed or commitments made based on funding: from third parties (such as for example Government UTCF funding); or future GLA budgets, until legally binding agreements and all approvals for the same are in place
• 6.3.2    to the extent that expenditure concerns the award of grant funding, it is distributed fairly, transparently, in manner which 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
• 6.3.3    to the extent that expenditure concerns the 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
• 6.3.4    to the extent that it is proposed decisions be made in respect of the creation of new posts, all applicable GLA HR protocols and procedures are followed. 

6.4    In addition, as the proposals in respect of which decisions are sought involve the making of commitments which extend beyond current approved budgets and the current Mayoral term, officers must ensure that the terms of all agreements entered into in respect of the expenditure do not have the effect of fettering the discretion of the GLA to amend such future budgets and/or any successor administration, considering in particular the London elections taking place in May 2024. Accordingly, officers must ensure that all agreements which involve making such commitments include a GLA right to terminate at any point for convenience (at no cost to the GLA) and all such agreements are managed in such a manner, and any deliverables, milestones and/or output requirements are structured so as to mitigate risks of the GLA incurring abortive expenditure (which might be reasonably be taken to fetter, practically, the exercise of such discretion).