A major annual scheme to replenish Lincolnshire’s beaches will get underway in June 2020, helping reduce the risk of flooding up and down the coast.

The Environment Agency’s £7m beach management scheme sees sand dredged from the seabed and pumped onto the beach to replace levels lost to the sea during the winter.

Replenishing this sand means the beaches – instead of hard defences like sea walls – take the brunt of the waves’ force and energy. This reduces the amount of damage and erosion to those hard defences, which help protect 20,000 homes and businesses, 24,500 static caravans and 35,000 hectares of land from flooding.

Deborah Campbell, east coast flood risk manager for the Environment Agency, said:

This vital work reduces the risk of flooding to homes and businesses on the coast, and we’re delighted it is able to go ahead in line with the government’s coronavirus guidance. All our staff, contractors and partners will practice social distancing and follow Public Health England’s guidance for safe working.

And as well as helping protect people from flooding, the work will also help maintain our beloved sandy beaches so they’ll be ready to welcome back locals and tourists alike, when it’s safe for visitors to return.

Meanwhile, while people remain at home, we’d remind you to please sign up for free flood warnings at www.gov.uk/flood to help protect your families if flooding is expected.

Over the next 6 weeks, more than 400,000 cubic metres of sand will be pumped back onto beaches between Saltfleet and Gibraltar Point, including Trusthorpe, Mablethorpe, Ingoldmells, Trunch Lane, Wolla Bank, Chapel Six Marshes and Hutoft, and local people who may be visiting their beach are asked to stay clear of the worksites.

The Environment Agency has been restoring sand levels on the Lincolnshire coast each year since 1994, and, while the work continues to be effective, long-term estimates suggest that the impacts of climate change will mean continuing to use sand alone as a method of managing flood risk will not be sustainable.

Therefore, the Environment Agency’s strategy for managing coastal flood risk between Saltfleet and Gibraltar has been under review for a number of years.

A new strategy has been developed, and, based on the results of a public consultation held last year, a number of options for managing the coast in the future have been taken forward. More information on the draft strategy can be found on our Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point and Lincolnshire beach management website.

The UK Foreign Secretary has announced the launch of the FCO International Programme as one of the elements for the UK’s global response to COVID-19 challenges.

The British Embassy Kyiv administers this support to Ukraine through our International Programme COVID-19 Enabling Fund 2020-2021. We invite proposals for project work through civil society organisations as well as government bodies, in all regions of Ukraine, in support of Ukraine’s response to the consequences of COVID-19.

The funding period is 15 July 2020 to 15 March 2021.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 17.00 (Kyiv time) on 15 June 2020.

The programme will focus on the following areas:

Anti-corruption

Intended outcomes:

• positive impact on law enforcement capacity to fight corruption at local level, in particular, related to COVID-19 procurement
• increased information in the public domain on COVID-19 procurement at regional level
• improved local self-government bodies’ service delivery and their response to COVID-19 as a result of reduced corruption, thus contributing to developing sustainable hromadas and successful roll out of decentralisation in Ukraine.

Fighting Disinformation around COVID-19

Intended outcomes:

• improved monitoring and analysis of disinformation around COVID-19 present in the Ukrainian media space and social networks *expose and reduce disinformation around COVID-19 in the Ukrainian media space and social networks, in particular, disinformation originating from temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea and from Russia.

Local economic impact of COVID-19

Intended outcomes:

• Ukrainian business associations, industry bodies and other civil society organisations are better able to respond to the needs of local businesses, particularly SMEs, in surviving the effects of COVID-19 and recovering after the crisis, including issues like supply chain transformation and/or development of new business models
• completion of regional pilots in one or more strategic regions of Ukraine, which can lead to dissemination of best practice across Ukraine. The project proposal should take account of activities by other donors and international partners and demonstrate how close coordination will be ensured.

Notes:

In this call for proposals, we will prioritise bids coming from civil society organisations but bids which involve working with government bodies may also be approved where there is a strong case. We welcome proposals for work in all regions of Ukraine, and regional pilots which could be scaled up later to become nationwide

Successful projects should have sustainable outcomes and should clearly identify the change that will be brought about. They may also build on projects by other organisations, complementing their efforts. All bids should make clear how they complement existing activities supported by other donors and international partners, and how work in the regions complements national level activity.

The maximum indicative funding for projects is £15,000. This may be in addition to co-funding and self-funding contributions; indeed this will be considered a merit. Our funding is for the UK financial year 2020-21 only (projects must be implemented and all payments made by 15 March 2020). Where appropriate, bidders are encouraged to describe how their project could be further scaled-up if additional funding became available.

Administrative costs (office rent, project management and book-keeper rates, utilities, communications, stationery, bank charges etc) must not exceed 8% of the total project budget. We are unable to fund academic courses or research, English language courses, the purchase of IT or other equipment.

The British Embassy Kyiv reserves the right to carry out due diligence of potential grantees, including seeking references, as part of the selection process.

Bidding is competitive and only selected projects will receive funding. The Embassy reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids without incurring any obligation to inform the affected applicant(s) of the grounds of such acceptance or rejection. Due to the volume of bids expected we will not be able to provide feedback on unsuccessful bids.

Bidding process

Bidders should fill in the standard Project Proposal Form above £10k (ODT, 56KB) (MS Word Document, 123KB) and include a breakdown of project costs in the ABB – Activity Based Budget Template (ODS, 10.2KB) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 20KB). We will not consider proposals submitted in other formats. Budgets must be Activity Based Budgets (ABB), all costs should be indicative, in GBP (not Ukrainian Hryvna).

Successful bids must demonstrate strong strategic relevance to the areas of programme focus and have a clear focus on delivering change and sustainability.

Successful implementers should be able to receive project funding in GBP (UK pound sterling) and open a GBP bank account for the project. 85% of project funds should be spent before end of December 2020.

Proposals should be sent to the British Embassy Kyiv at Kyiv.Projects@fco.gov.uk by 17.00 (Kyiv time) on 15 June 2020. In the subject line, please indicate the area you are bidding for and the name of the bidder. We aim to evaluate proposals by end of June. Approved projects will commence in mid-July.

Evaluation criteria

Proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria:

• fit to programme objectives – the extent to which the proposal addresses the issues
• quality of project – how well defined and relevant the outcome is and how outputs will deliver this change
• value for money – the value of the expected project outcomes, the level of funding requested and institutional contribution
• previous experience – evidence of the project team’s understanding the issue and of its regional activities, ability to manage and deliver a successful project, through work done to date in the area or in related fields
• gender-sensitive approach – partners should identify the gender implications of the theme they are addressing, whether it will impact differently on men and women and how this is taken into account in the proposal. The proposals will be assessed by a mixed gender panel.

Further information

Building owners have been urged to act and put the safety of residents first as the government’s £1 billion Building Safety Fund to remove dangerous cladding was launched today by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick MP.

It comes as the government has today (26 May 2020) published the prospectus for the fund which will meet the cost for remediation of unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on residential buildings in the private and social sector that are 18 metres and over and do not comply with building regulations.

This fund is predominately targeted at supporting leaseholders in the private sector facing significant bills. However, the government is clear that for leaseholders living in buildings owned by providers in the social sector, it will provide funding to meet the provider’s costs which would otherwise have been borne by leaseholders. The government expects landlords to cover these costs without increasing rent for their tenants.

The government’ is already providing £600 million for the replacement of ACM cladding systems bringing total funding for remediation up to £1.6 billion.

Ministers have been clear that they expect building owners who are already remediating their buildings should continue to do so. They should explore every opportunity to fund this work before seeking funding from government or passing on costs to their leaseholders.

The fund’s application process has been designed to enable projects to proceed at pace with building owners, freeholders or others responsible for the building urged to register for the fund on Monday as applications can be progressed alongside the development of the remediation project.

It comes as the government has also published an amendment to the statutory guidance to building safety regulations – otherwise known as Approved Document B. These changes will ensure sprinkler systems and consistent wayfinding signage are mandatory in all new high-rise blocks over 11 metres tall when they come into force.

The Housing Secretary, mayors and local leaders have also pledged to ensure vital building safety improvements continue during the coronavirus pandemic.

This will ensure the safety of those living in high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding or insufficient fire safety measures is prioritised.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick MP said:

Today I am launching our £1 billion fund to remove unsafe non-ACM cladding from buildings. This is work that must take place as an absolute priority to keep residents safe and brings total funding for remediation up to £1.6 billion.

I will not accept any excuses from building owners who have yet to take action and those responsible should register for the fund so that they can start the remediation process immediately. I have also reached an agreement with local leaders so that this important work can continue safely during the pandemic.

New statutory guidance published today also means that all new residential buildings over 11 metres tall will be fitted with sprinkler systems. This is another critical part of our commitment to delivering the biggest changes to building safety for a generation.

Building Safety Minister Lord Greenhalgh said:

Now that this additional £1 billion funding is in place, building owners must crack on with removing flammable cladding on all high-rise residential buildings that are over 18 metres.

The government will work with the Mayor of London and our Metro Mayors as well as local councils to ensure that these vital building safety works are finally carried out, so that people are safe in their homes.

Our Fire Safety Bill, which was introduced to Parliament last month, will empower fire and rescue services to take enforcement action and hold building owners to account if they do not comply with law.

The Building Safety Pledge has been agreed by the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP (Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government) and the following local leaders:

Building Safety Fund for the remediation of non-ACM cladding systems

In the private sector, the Building Safety Fund for the remediation of non-ACM cladding systems will meet the capital costs of removing and replacing unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings.

Funding will also be provided for mixed use residential and commercial developments in both sectors.

It will not apply to buildings under 18 metres in height and other non-residential buildings, such as hotels, hospitals and buildings where there are no residential leaseholders.

Where remediation work has started on buildings with non-ACM cladding systems in scope or where work had been previously committed to, prior to the Budget announcement of the fund on 11 March 2020, these works will not eligible for the fund.

We have also appointed Faithful + Gould to address gaps in our data on the systems with buildings owners encouraged to register their buildings so the organisation can assist the government in driving forward the pace of remediation.

The registration process will open on 1 June 2020 and close on 31 July 2020. Full application guidance will be issued in July after the registration phase is complete.

Approved Document B

The government has today published our response to our consultation on Approved Document B, which covers building regulations for fire safety.

It has also published an amendment to Approved Document B, that extends the provision of sprinklers in blocks of high-rise residential buildings to those buildings with a top floor height of 11 metres above ground level.

It also contains new guidance on consistent wayfinding signage for Fire and Rescue Service personnel in the same buildings.

The purpose of this Circular is to:

• draw attention to the amendments made to Approved Document B (Fire Safety), volume 1 – Dwellings, 2019 edition
• draw attention to the amendments made to Approved Document B (Fire Safety), volume 2 – Buildings other than dwellings, 2019 edition
• announce the approval and publication of the amended Approved Documents

The changes made to the Approved Documents apply only to buildings and building work in England.

These amendments come into effect on 26 November 2020.