A Green New Deal

City Hall’s Environment team have had a very busy time over the last few months, particularly with the expansion of the ULEZ and COP26.

Here are some of the main highlights of what’s been going on…

Tackling toxic air: ULEZ expansion

The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is central to the Mayor’s plans to tackle toxic air pollution in the capital.

On 21 October, the zone expanded up to (but not including) the North and South Circular roads – to an area 18 times larger than the central ULEZ.

At the time of launch, many Londoners had already taken action to prepare.

Early figures suggest that 87% of vehicles travelling in the zone already meet the ULEZ standards.

This is a dramatic increase in compliance from 39% in February 2017, when changes associated with the ULEZ began.

Two areas win Future Neighbourhoods 2030 funding

On 28 October, the Mayor confirmed the two areas of London that will become Future Neighbourhoods, with funding from his Green New Deal fund. These are:

• Notting Dale in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• Somers Town in the London Borough of Camden.

The programme aims to transform these neighbourhoods with pioneering environmental projects to tackle the twin dangers of climate emergency and toxic air pollution.

Watch the video about Future Neighbourhoods 2030:

Thank you to all the Talk London users who contributed ideas. You contributed 169 ideas for improving your neighbourhoods. We’ve passed these on to the winning boroughs, which are now drawing up plans for their Future Neighbourhoods.

Helping Londoners get involved in COP26

The COP26 (short for ‘Conference of the Parties’) climate change conference took place in Glasgow from 1 to 12 November.

It can be difficult to know how to get involved in an event like COP26, so we ran activities to help Londoners explore the topics discussed and take environmental action.

These included:

10 things that Londoners can do to help the planet

We teamed up with Hubbub to put together a list of practical tips and actions Londoners can take to be greener, including:

• greening your finances
• cutting down on clothing waste
• being smart with your deliveries.

Read our list of 10 things that Londoners can do to help the planet.

Climate action in schools

The London Schools’ Climate Kick-Start was a week of activities where thousands of young Londoners took climate action across the capital.

Flagship events included:

• a tree planting day hosted by The Conservation Volunteers
• a sustainable fashion workshop with London College of Fashion
• a cleantech careers taster session hosted by the Royal Institution
• a pedal-powered activity day hosted by Sustrans, the walking and cycling charity.

The Mayor awarded five London secondary schools £10,000 to kick-start or accelerate environmental projects at a prize-giving ceremony hosted by Ade Adepitan MBE. 

Watch the Climate Kick-Start highlights video.

London Climate Summit – uniting leaders, businesses and communities

With London Councils, we held a London Climate Summit to bring together London’s leaders, businesses and communities. The summit showcased action to tackle the climate emergency by doubling the size of London's green economy by 2030. 

Watch the recording of the summit.

Future Neighbourhoods 2030 is a programme that will help areas of London become a zero carbon, zero waste, zero pollution city.

Two to four neighbourhoods will be selected to become models for the rest of London to follow in making the necessary changes to tackle our city’s environmental challenges. The selected neighbourhoods will be in some of London’s most disadvantaged and climate vulnerable areas.

As London recovers from the pandemic, we have an opportunity to redefine our ambitions for the places we live and work as well as to reimagine our local economies – to become a city that is greener, fairer and healthier for all Londoners.

Future Neighbourhoods 2030 will work with local authorities, community groups and Londoners to address the most pressing environmental issues - including the climate emergency and toxic air pollution. Funding from City Hall will help create strategies and projects to create more sustainable homes, make neighbourhoods more resilient to climate change, support clean transport and help create jobs and skills in the green economy. This will help us find the best practice and innovative solutions for London’s diverse neighbourhoods which will then be shared across the city.

What is a Future Neighbourhood? Why and for who?

A Future Neighbourhood embraces a green recovery and commits to a decade of action to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies, whilst addressing London’s health and social inequalities.

Future Neighbourhoods will receive funding to create a strategy for the as well as to deliver projects within these five themes:

• Retrofitting homes, commercial and public buildings 
• Creating a decarbonised, smart and integrated energy system 
• Improving air quality and creating zero emission zones 
• Climate adapted, resilient, and green neighbourhoods 
• Zero waste, circular economy  

Some examples of what Future Neighbourhoods 2030 might fund include:

• Low carbon, affordable and healthy ways of getting around. Promoting active travel in the areas with zero emission vehicles and accessible public transport
• Supporting local production economy through providing maker spaces and innovative training.
• Creating more greener spaces with communal spaces and facilities for culture, nature, recreation and social interaction.
• Supporting local services such as education, essential retail and workspaces.  

The selected neighbourhoods will act as the ‘gold standard’ for the rest of London, their successful projects and initiatives will be scaled up to other parts of the city. This will encourage innovation and cooperation throughout London to ensure that we create the neighbourhoods that Londoners deserve.

What has happened so far?

16 March 2021 –Future Neighbourhoods 2030 was launched - see the full prospectus here

17 May 2021 – The expression of interest phase closed.

We received a high volumes of applications ranging from local authorities, Business Improvement Districts and Housing Associations. These have been narrowed down to six applications to be taken through to full stage application.

What’s next?  

• The full application phase will run until 20 September 
• We will announce successful applicants in late October.
• The selected Future Neighbourhoods will receive funding to commence their strategy drafting and implementing projects.
• We will work closely with funded Future Neighbourhoods on their neighbourhood development, sharing learnings and offering support.  

COVID-19 has brought into focus how the environment can have a disproportionate impact on Londoners. Those living in the most deprived areas are most likely to experience poor air quality, cold, damp homes and limited access to green space. For us, the Green New Deal mission is about putting the environment at the centre of our recovery. It’s a chance to help London recover from the economic downturn whilst setting the urgent foundations for making a greener, fairer city.

A Green New Deal will help London to recover by supporting economic growth, sustaining jobs and creating new ones. It will also support meeting the Mayor’s targets for London to become a zero-carbon, zero pollution city by 2030 and a zero-waste city by 2050. It will make London better adapted to climate change and healthier for its citizens.  

New ways of working
To achieve large scale transformation by 2030, we need new approaches, greater coordination, faster action, and importantly, buy-in from Londoners. London also needs the right powers and funding from national government, and substantial flows of private sector capital. This approach demands an unprecedented level of collaboration, partnership and trust whilst ensuring that Londoners, communities and civil society can influence, shape and participate fully in London’s recovery. 

London Councils, who work on behalf of all of London’s boroughs, have been partners in co-designing plans for the Green New Deal ensuring the mission relevant and applicable to all of London’s local areas. But achieving its ambitions cannot happen without working more closely with London’s boroughs, businesses, community groups, individuals and other partners across London, to identify opportunities and ensure projects are delivered at scale.   

Refining the Green New Deal
As a first step, we reached out to a wide range of stakeholders and Londoners via Talk London, targeted community conversations, workshops and surveys to inform the development of the mission.  

As the Green New Deal mission will involve such a broad range of Londoners and organisations, we have begun focusing on specific themes and challenges that need to be addressed. In January, a further three ‘deep dive’ workshops were held in partnership with London Councils, London South Bank University (LSBU), Transport for London (TfL) and RSPB on: 

• Retrofitting London’s Domestic Buildings (supported by LSBU) - this focused on overcoming the barriers to applying minimum energy efficiency standards to London’s private rented homes, this will be crucial to help cut carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty. 
• Zero Emission Zones (supported by TfL) - this focused on opportunities to bring in local zero emission transport zones in town centres and central London to address the health impacts of toxic air pollution. 
• Enhancing Green Spaces and Climate Resilience (supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, RSPB) - this focused on the importance of green spaces and a greener urban environment for Londoners’ health and wellbeing and how to address the inequalities in access to open spaces highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Key stakeholders were invited to the workshops, including environmental groups, civil society, local government, and industry specialists, to help discuss the challenges facing these project areas and identify opportunities to address them in a collaborative and inclusive way. 

What’s next?
The findings and outcomes gathered from these workshops will be used to help refine the scope and direction of each project area.  

Stakeholder feedback will help refine the focused project areas which contribute to the overall Green New Deal mission. We are planning further workshops and roundtables will be carried out over 2021 and engagement with these different stakeholder groups will continue throughout the recovery programme.