Think tank Policy Exchange has launched a report on policies to improve the UK’s urban green spaces.
The report highlights the importance of urban green spaces to the social and economic wellbeing of the country and makes recommendations to protect and improve them.
Green Society: Policies to improve the UK’s urban green spaces sets out the value of parks and other urban green spaces, namely that they provide free space for exercise, socialising and relaxation, and can improve both physical and mental health.
However, Policy Exchange also found that on average local authority spending on open spaces was cut by 10.5% between 2010/11 and 2012/13 and there is no ring-fence protecting the budget spent on maintaining green spaces.
Combined with the increasing demand for housing and other urban development there is a risk that the UK’s parks will deteriorate or become spaces that are the preserve of wealthy areas.
The report contains proposals to improve local green spaces, including:
- Council tax rebate: A full or partial council tax rebate for local residents who join civil or community groups and volunteer to maintain and improve nearby green spaces.
- Ecotherapy: The Department of Health should run a series of pilots allowing GPs to refer patients to non-clinical sources of support to improve their mental and physical health.
- Park Levy: Residents should be given the ability to vote on whether to raise a compulsory levy on properties within a set distance from a park or urban green space.
- Living Legacies: Charities supporting green space maintenance and regeneration should be made eligible beneficiaries of Living Legacies, through which a donor can receive an annual income from a trust for a specified period (for example, until death), after which the remaining capital value of the trust, which is tax exempt, goes to the specified charity.
- Developer endowment: New green spaces should be required to include a long-term funding plan which may include endowments part funded by developer contributions as part of the planning application.
Author of the report, Dr Katherine Drayson, said:
"Britain’s parks are the lungs of our great cities. They are an oasis of calm and tranquillity in an increasingly fast-moving world.
"However, as local authority budgets have been squeezed, public funding for parks, cemeteries and allotments has declined sharply."
