Culture change needed to view parks as local economic assets

A culture change is needed to ensure that green spaces are created around housing developments.

A new report by the Land Trust has evidenced the social and economic benefits of new parkland in the Wirral, and calls on government to change planning guidance.

The report studied the local benefits of the creation of Port Sunlight park in the Wirral on Merseyside in 2013, and found that the parkland impacted house prices and local businesses as well as creating social value.

The Land Trust worked with the landowner and other partners to create the 30 hectare park and wetland in 2013. A local autism charity now manages the park on behalf of the Land Trust, providing opportunities for volunteering and boosting health and wellbeing.

Houses situated within a 500 metre radius saw an £8,000 increase in value, while local businesses such as dog walkers and ice-cream vendors operating in the park generated £48,000 annual revenue. Other local businesses generated £38,000 due to the location of the park.

Euan Hall, chief executive of the Land Trust, said that the report ‘provides concrete evidence of green space bringing economic value to local communities’. But he warned that ‘there are barriers to overcome’ if we’re to reap the full benefits of this across the UK.

The Land Trust’s report said that developers should start quantifying the impacts of green spaces on their housing development revenues – and factor-in from the beginning the long-term costs of maintaining green space.

It said that local authority planners need to make sure local planning decisions take into account funding for long-term maintenance of green space associated with developments and ensure that new developments contribute to existing green spaces.

And national government must ‘drive a culture change through planning policy guidance’,  to guarantee the necessary investment for maintaining green spaces in and around developments.

‘We need developers, local authority planners and central government planning guidance to come together and change how we think about green spaces – not just as places which support the government’s objectives around health and wellbeing, but also as assets that boost local economies.’

• Read the report here.