MD3158 Rewild London Fund Round 3

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. The Mayor wants London to play its part in nature being visibly and measurably on the path of recovery by 2030, as well as London reaching net-zero carbon by this date.
1.2.    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. It will help ensure London becomes a greener, zero-carbon, zero-pollution city by 2030. 
1.3.    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. 
1.4.    The Mayor convened the London Rewilding Taskforce to explore potential opportunities for rewilding in London to support nature recovery and enhance biodiversity, while bringing benefits to Londoners and addressing the climate and ecological emergency. The Taskforce met three times over 2022 and a final recommendations report was published in March 2023.  The proposed third round of the Rewild London Fund has been updated to reflect the Taskforce recommendations and supports the delivery of recommendations 2, 3.2 and 3.3:
•    Recommendation 2: Support positive long-term management and monitoring of key stepping stone sites so that their role in London’s nature network and connections between large-scale rewilding sites is maximised. 
•    Recommendation 3.2: Support activities linked to rewilding ‘stepping stone’ projects that build on existing GLA and partners’ initiatives and that provide meaningful opportunities for Londoners to enhance biodiversity
•    Recommendation 3.3: Build on public interest and enthusiasm around rewilding to share and reframe messages about nature to promote wilder, more natural approaches to urban greening.
1.5.    While not responsible for the management of land in London, the Mayor has an important strategic role in supporting those who are to implement good site management and smaller-scale rewilding, such as local authorities and other major landowners. This is essential if the potential benefits of rewilding for London that the Taskforce have identified are to be fully realised. The Taskforce report recommended that “support should be focused on managers of key sites in the city’s ecological network i.e. Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs), as well as other large green and blue spaces where ecological restoration at a relevant scale to reinstate some natural process could take place” . SINCs are the core of London’s ecological network and are central to any action to address the ecological emergency and rewild London. There are more than 1,600 SINCs in London, covering nearly 20 per cent of the city’s surface area. Some of these sites are also designated as local nature reserves, or as internationally or nationally important sites for the habitats or species found within them. As set out in sections 2.2 and 2.3 below, and as recommended by the London Rewilding Taskforce, the Rewild London Fund will also support projects that aim to create new SINCs, improve habitats at sites which can then aim to qualify for SINC status, and projects to increase landscape connectivity between sites.  These are the “stepping stones” referred to in the London Rewilding Taskforce report and enabling sites that are not currently SINCs is an enhancement to the criteria for previous rounds of the Rewilding London Fund.
1.6.    Most SINCs are the responsibility of boroughs or other public bodies and should offer opportunities for Londoners to enjoy nature close-up. It is estimated, however, that 40-60 per cent of SINC sites are not covered by any regular management to conserve or enhance their special biodiversity.  Years of cuts to public-sector budgets mean that fewer than half of London’s boroughs have access to in-house ecological advice. For those that do, this resource is often spread too thinly to adequately oversee SINC management, or to invest in the creation of new habitats to meet the targets set to create new priority habitats for conservation in the London Environment Strategy. 
1.7.    In January 2022, the Mayor awarded £0.6m to 19 projects, through the first round of his Rewild London Fund (agreed in MD2680). This funding was to support SINC owners and managers to improve and restore SINCs; create new habitats; connect sites; and reintroduce species to help rewild the city. The funding of these projects helped to connect 54 SINCs and create or restore more than 250 hectares of wildlife habitat. 
1.8.    The first round of the Rewild London Fund was oversubscribed, with more than twice as much funding requested as available. Consequently, not all good projects could be funded. A second round of the Rewild London Fund was awarded in March 2023 (agreed in MD3020). It awarded £0.85m to 22 projects to enhance SINCs and strengthen links between them.  
1.9.    This MD seeks the Mayor’s approval to spend the following GLA budget towards the third round of the Rewild London Fund: £0.5m from the 2023-24 Climate Resilience Through Nature budget, £0.2m from the 2023-24 Inclusive Green Space budget and £0.2m from the 2024-25 Climate Resilience Through Nature budget subject to future budget approval (see breakdown in para 2.6, table 1). The Inclusive Green Space budget has previously funded the Grow Back Greener grant programme which has focussed on community green space projects. There are currently 56 Grow Back Greener projects on site which are due to complete in January 2024. It is not planned to open another round of that grant scheme in 2023-24. Instead, the third round of the Rewild London Fund will be open to community groups who are working with landowners. 
1.10.    GLA officers are also seeking additional external sponsorship or other grant funders to increase the scale of the programme. Initial discussions have taken place, but no sponsorship or external income is yet confirmed. Any sponsorship income would be subject to the GLA’s usual due diligence checks. Any additional funding from external sources would contribute towards increasing the grant funding pot. This MD therefore also seeks a delegation of authority to the Executive Director of Good Growth to agree to receive and spend any additional external income without the need for a further decision form. Any additional funding would enable the grant pot to be increased (noting that some support costs – grant administration and expert advice – may also need to increase proportionally). Any increase of available grant funding would be published on London.gov and in the grants guidance. Officers would consult with the Deputy Mayor and seek an additional DD if the additional funding from external sources was of a significant scale, such that it changed the scope of the grant scheme as set out in this MD, or was from a contentious funder.   
1.11.    Groundwork London will be contracted to provide grant management support through the appropriate GLA call off contract (ICTI12805-A). They have extensive experience of managing GLA green infrastructure grants, including rounds 1 and 2 of Rewild London and the Mayor’s Grow Back Greener community greening grants.  
1.12.    The GLA worked in partnership with London Wildlife Trust (LWT) to deliver rounds 1 and 2 of Rewild London Fund to help address some of the skills and capacity gaps facing SINC owners and managers. LWT provided expert technical advice to grantees.  For this third round it is proposed that Groundwork London procure and manage the expert technical partner who will make specialist ecological advice available to grantee project managers. This is to ensure that the technical support is fully integrated Groundwork’s grant management support. The technical partner will assist with scoring applications, with a focus on their ecological merits, and provide technical assistance to applicants resulting in better outcomes for nature in London. 
1.13.    A key recommendation from the London Rewilding Taskforce was to “build on public interest and enthusiasm around rewilding” in a way that is inclusive to all Londoners. We are developing a communications campaign to engage the wider public in broader narratives about urban greening, and the Mayor of London’s ongoing delivery programme in this space. 
1.14.    The Rewild London Fund will operate as a grant scheme with a competitive call for projects, open to local authorities and civil society organisations. It will make grants available to support projects that help to create, enhance, restore and connect SINCs and rewild the city. The types of projects that could receive funding include expanding and buffering SINCs through new habitat creation; works to enable better site management, such as fencing or access, trials and monitoring of innovative management techniques that can be rolled out to other sites; projects to improve habitats in new locations between SINCs to ensure they are better connected, and therefore more resilient; improving habitats at sites which can aim to qualify for SINC status; and projects that restore lost species such as water voles or large grazing animals to an area. The Fund also aims to support activities that enable underrepresented communities to actively participate in managing wildlife sites. 
1.15.    It is anticipated that there will be circa £0.7m available as grants through two strands of the fund, with the remaining funding covering Groundwork’s and any expert advisers’ fees and overheads, a fixed term GLA post (approved separately via CO490), and communication support for the programme to encourage Londoners to get involved. One strand will offer grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 and will support 8-20 projects. A second strand will offer grants between £100,000 and £150,000 for two larger flagship projects that are focused on new habitat creation and rewilding at a larger scale, reflecting the view of the Mayor’s Rewilding Taskforce that has identified the need for rewilding projects to happen at a range of spatial scales. 
1.16.    The grants will have a project delivery window from January 2024 to March 2025 reflecting the specialist nature of the types of projects we expect to fund. This will allow projects to include monitoring and delivery aspects, where beneficial; and allow any practical works to be delivered at the time of year that is most appropriate, depending on the site’s nature conservation interest.  
 

Objectives
2.1.    The programme detailed in this Mayoral decision will be expected to contribute to the delivery of the objectives of the Green New Deal Recovery Mission, which 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.
2.2.    The Mayor is committed to London playing its part in tackling the ecological emergency and has invested almost £30 million in green infrastructure programmes since 2016, including towards supporting nature’s recovery. As set out at paragraph 1.4, the Mayor convened the London Rewilding Taskforce to establish what further opportunities there are to rewild London to support nature, and how these opportunities can be funded. The Taskforce has established a definition of and principles for rewilding in London. Together these recognise the essential role of the city’s existing ecological network of SINCs and other green spaces, and the need to connect sites and increase access to nature for Londoners as part of a rewilding approach. These priorities are reflected in this round of the Rewild London Fund’s core objectives, which are to:
•    create new habitats to expand, diversify and connect SINCs in line with London Environment Strategy targets and the recommendations of the London Rewilding Taskforce 
•    enhance London’s SINCs to restore nature and support biodiversity   
•    support innovative habitat or species focussed projects that inspire action, and trial and implement new approaches that could be adopted more widely to help rewild the city
•    strengthen local ecological networks to make them more resilient   
•    secure better future management of sites 
•    build skills to better plan for and manage SINCs 
•    support activities that enable unrepresented communities to better access and actively participate in managing important wildlife sites and promote rewilding projects to engage the public in rewilding and environment.
2.3.    The grant programme will be supported by a communication campaign (as set out in paragraph 1.13). This campaign supports the existing strategic objective “to make a greener, cleaner, healthier and more sustainable London”. 
2.4.    The aim of the communications campaign is to:
•    build awareness amongst all Londoners of the work the Mayor is doing to make London a cleaner, greener, healthier and more sustainable city 
•    reach underrepresented groups with low cost, environmentally friendly activities supported by the Mayor 
•    involve more Londoners  in programmes that help bring nature to all parts of the city, especially in built up urban areas with high ethnic minority and lower income representation.
Outcomes
2.5.    To promote nature’s recovery across London, the Rewild London Fund will support landowners and managers, and those working with them including civil society organisations and community groups, to respond to the climate and ecological emergencies by creating and restoring priority habitats across London. Outcomes from the programme will include:
•    increased resilience of London’s ecological network due to SINCs being buffered and expanded, better managed and better connected 
•    increased extent of priority habitats in London, helping to deliver the London Environment Strategy targets for habitat creation 
•    making more space for nature and opportunities for Londoners to enjoy nature
•    enhanced biodiversity and creation of new wildlife habitats
•    conditions created for potential species (re)introductions that meet wider conservation objectives.
Outputs
2.6.    The fund is expected to provide grants to 8-20 small projects, and two large flagship projects, to undertake projects to create, enhance, restore and connect SINCs such as, but not exclusive to:
•    expanding and buffering SINCs through new habitat creation on adjacent land, such as the creation of new chalk grassland banks 
•    works to enable more effective and efficient site management, such as infrastructure and equipment to bring amenity grassland into meadow management 
•    trials and monitoring of innovative management techniques that can be rolled out to other sites, such as no-fence collars for conservation grazing projects 
•    improving habitats between SINCs to ensure they are better connected and more resilient, such as creating habitat stepping stones to help secure landscape connectivity for priority species 
•    enhancing more than one SINC to improve a local nature network, such as installation of reedbeds along a waterway/waterbody to create a local network 
•    improving habitats at sites, which can then aim to qualify for SINC status
•    ecological surveys or monitoring of the outcomes of management to inform future site management and local nature recovery plan development, such as hydrological studies to design wetland creation schemes  
•    creating the conditions for potential reintroductions of species that meet wider conservation objectives 
•    focused staff-training activities to make sure that those responsible for the day-to-day planning and management of SINCs have the right skills to do so.
2.7.    In addition to this, we will expect grant recipients to: 
•    share the knowledge and best practice they develop through funded projects to help accelerate the changes required across London to create healthy, sustainable places and to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies. Applicants to the fund will need to identify how they will do this within their own organisation and with other organisations across London as part of their application
•    prepare and contribute to case studies and disseminate learning so that best practice can be shared with other land managers
•    work with the GLA on communicating about their projects
•    engage the public and/or schools with their project, for example by organising open day(s), citizen science or other volunteer components, guided walks, talks or education sessions.
2.8.    The table below details the proposed budget profile:

Table 1: Rewild London round 3 – outline budget

2.9.    See Table 3 in section 5.2 for a breakdown of corresponding budget lines. The funding in 2024-25 is subject to future budget confirmation and related approvals. 

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 programme outlined in this MD forms 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.    The Mayor has a number of green infrastructure grants programmes that are complementary and together fund different types and scales of greening across the city to deliver multiple benefits for Londoners and nature. The Fund will encourage applicants to identify opportunities for all Londoners, including underrepresented groups, to benefit from improved access to nature; participate in projects; access training; or learn new skills through funded projects. 
 

4.1.    The key risks and issues are set out in Table 2, below. 

Table 2 – Risks and issues 

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
4.2.    The work outlined in this MD will 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 5.2: conserving and enhancing wildlife and natural habitats 
•    London Environment Strategy Policy 5.2.1: protect a core network of nature conservation sites and ensure a net gain in biodiversity
•    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
•    London Health Inequalities Strategy Objective 3.3: a greener city where all Londoners have access to good-quality green spaces
•    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
•    London Rewilding Taskforce Recommendation 2: Support positive long-term management and monitoring of key stepping stone sites so that their role in London’s nature network and connections between large-scale rewilding sites is maximised
•    London Rewilding Taskforce Recommendation 3.2: Support activities linked to rewilding ‘stepping stone’ projects that build on existing GLA and partners’ initiatives and that provide meaningful opportunities for Londoners to enhance biodiversity
•    London Rewilding Taskforce Recommendation 3.3: Build on public interest and enthusiasm around rewilding to share and reframe messages about nature to promote wilder, more natural approaches to urban greening.
Consultations and impact assessments
4.3.    Conserving London’s wildlife and natural habitats is one of the three strategic green infrastructure priorities of the 2018 London Environment Strategy. The evidence base for the strategy showed that SINCs are integral to meeting this aim. However, it also showed that they are at risk from a chronic lack of management that would ultimately lead to declines in nature and in their quality as green spaces for people. The responses received during the public consultation on the London Environment Strategy supported this conclusion, and identified conserving wildlife sites and providing support and guidance for their management as a priority.  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 green spaces, such as SINCs, would have positive impact on addressing inequalities in access to green space and nature. 
4.4.    The London Rewilding Taskforce issued a call for evidence to stakeholders as well as a Talk London online discussion and survey in the summer of 2022, which informed the Taskforce recommendations. The responses included similar issues to those outlined in paragraph 4.3. The call for evidence noted that local authorities manage significant areas of natural greenspace but have no statutory duty to do this and have suffered budget reductions, also that existing government funding mechanisms are typically not a good fit for urban areas. Another barrier identified was that local authorities are missing the necessary expertise and skill sets to plan, deliver and monitor rewilding projects, as well as to access funding. The Talk London survey found that most respondents appreciated the benefits of spending time in green spaces on their mental health (72 per cent) and physical health and wellbeing (66 per cent). Environmental issues, such as declining wildlife, were a big concern for many of the respondents. Respondents felt very worried about insects and birds disappearing (76 per cent) and varieties of animals declining (69 per cent). 
Conflicts of interest
4.5.    If any conflicts of interest arise during the delivery of the programme (i.e. a GLA officer or expert technical adviser has links with an organisation that applies for a grant), they will declare that interest and not take any part in assessing that grant application or awarding funding to that organisation. There are no conflicts of interest arising from any officer involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form. 
 

5.1.    Approval is requested for expenditure of up to £950,000 to fund Round 3 of Rewild London across 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years. Expenditure is expected to be £465,000 in 2023-24 and £485,000 in 2024-25. Budget for this expenditure is held within the Environment and Energy Unit.
5.2.    The current profile of the budget is £750,000 in 2023-24 and £200,000 in the indicative plan for 2024-25. Now that the profile of expenditure has been confirmed there will be a planned underspend of £285,000 against the 2023-24 budget and this will be requested as part of the Mayor’s budget setting process for 2024-25. This is set out in the table below:

Table 3: Rewild London round 3 – budget summary

5.3.    To mitigate any risk of the programme not being sufficiently resourced in future years to cover costs following the budget-setting process, any contractual agreements will include the usual break clauses that could potentially be exercised if required.

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 conductive or incidental to, the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development or improvement of the environment, in Greater London.
6.2.    In implementing the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers should comply 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.
6.3.    In taking the decisions requested, as noted in section 3 above, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it; and to foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.
6.4.    Section 1 of this report indicates that part of the sought budget will amount to the provision of grant funding, and not payment for services. Officers must ensure that the funding is distributed fairly; transparently; in accordance with the GLA’s equality policy and subsidy control rules; and in a manner that affords value for money in accordance with the GLA Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place and executed by the GLA and the recipient before any commitment to funding is made.