Green Society: Policies to improve the UK’s urban green spaces
Published by Policy Exchange 2014.
Summary
Green Society highlights the importance of urban green spaces to the social and economic wellbeing of the country and outlines a wide range of proposals to maintain and improve them at a time when local authority budgets are being cut. Combined with the increasing demand for housing and other urban development, these cuts mean there is a risk that the UK’s parks will deteriorate or become spaces that are the preserve of the wealthy.
Proposals include the idea of a full or partial council tax rebate for local residents who volunteer to maintain and improve nearby green spaces. This would not only provide a solution to the declining number of park rangers but would encourage people of all ages, backgrounds and income groups to become actively engaged in their local communities.
Key findings
• Local authority spending on open spaces was cut by an average of 10.5% between 2010/11 and 2012/13 leaving a funding gap, particularly for maintenance.
• Since 2011 there has been a 30% increase in Friends and user groups showing that people care about local green spaces.
• Innovative proposals to protect the UK’s urban green spaces include:
- Piloting Park Improvement Districts to help fund the long-term maintenance and improvement of local environments.
- Charging a park levy on top of council tax to residents living close to green space, as is already done in parts of London
- Introducing US-style Living Legacies – a trust providing a donor with an annual income for a set time, after which the capital goes to the charity – with green space charities able to benefit.
- Tapping into public health funding through green prescribing: prescribing ecotherapy such as group walking or gardening in parks as a remedy for obesity or mental illness.
- Allow civic improvement groups, such as Friends groups who maintain green spaces, to claim gift aid on donations.
- Require new green spaces to include a long-term funding plan, which may include endowments part-funded by the developer
- Investigate whether endowments, as developed by the Land Trust, could be used to fund existing green spaces.
- Establish a new competition for proposals to increase connectivity between urban green spaces at city level.
- Seek funding from Police ad Crime Commissioners to support park keepers in green spaces that are crime hotspots.
- Incentivise community involvement through council tax rebates for individuals and Community Cashback schemes.