Request for information on the cost of the North London Heat and Power Project

Nature of Request
NLHPP construction activities
Case id
2023-202

Request

Date received

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 to request the following information.

1. What was the estimated cost of the overall Edmonton EcoPark programme at the time of its approval by NLWA?
2. What is the current estimated budget for the programme?
1. When was this estimate last updated?
2. Is this estimate according to up to date financial values or values at the time the programme was approved?
3. Is the overall budget expected to rise further, if so, by how much?
4. Has the programme faced any challenges which have delayed completion? Please specify each major challenge, with a three sentence summary and the estimated time it has delayed delivery by.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request.

If you can identify any ways that my request could be refined I would be grateful for any further advice and assistance.

If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me via email and I will be very happy to clarify what I am asking for and discuss the request, my details are outlined below.

Response

Response date

Further to our email acknowledging your FOI request (reference 2023-202), our response is as follows.

You requested:

  • What was the estimated cost of the overall Edmonton EcoPark programme at the time of its approval by NLWA?
  • What is the current estimated budget for the programme?
    • When was this estimate last updated?
    • Is this estimate according to up to date financial values or values at the time the programme was approved?
  • Is the overall budget expected to rise further, if so, by how much?
  • Has the programme faced any challenges which have delayed completion? Please specify each major challenge, with a three-sentence summary and the estimated time it has delayed delivery by.

Estimated cost of the programme at the time of its approval

Members approved the decision to proceed with procurements with the knowledge of the estimated overall programme costs. In 2019, a baseline budget was set for the project at £1.22 billion (bn) in 2019 prices.

The decision by NLWA Members to begin the procurement for the EcoPark South Works was taken in October 2019 and the estimated programme cost was £1.22bn in 2019 prices.

The decision by NLWA Members to begin the procurement for the Energy Recovery Facility Works was taken in June 2020 and the estimated programme cost was £1.22bn in 2019 prices.

Current estimated budget

A baseline budget of £1.22bn was set out in 2019 which included risk and contingency allowances. NLWA reports regularly against that budget in 2019 prices as a comparator to measure the performance of delivering the North London Heat and Power Project. Members are updated through the Programme Committee and Authority Meetings which are typically held monthly.

Expected Budget Increases

None.

Challenges which have delayed completion

The overall North London Heat and Power project is on schedule.

Information regarding the Project’s status and challenges faced to date is reported regularly in the Authority and Programme Committee meetings. The reports for these are made available under the Authority’s ‘Our Meetings’ pages and can be found at https://www.nlwa.gov.uk/ourauthority/our-meetings. The exemption at section 26 (Information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is therefore engaged in relation to the final point of your request.

If you would like any further information, please do not hesitate to raise another information request. If you would like to complain about our handling of information requests, you can do so by emailing this email address (informationrequests@nlwa.gov.uk) or using the enquiry form on our website.