Urban Green Spaces
inquiry
In a letter to the Defra
Secretary today, the EFRA Committee argues that green spaces
should be a much higher priority, and calls for reforms and
greater Government leadership to encourage more investment into
and facilitation of green infrastructure.
The letter finds that despite the strong evidence linking urban
green spaces to a whole host of environmental and health
benefits, urban green spaces are “under serious threat”, and
“urgent action is needed” to reverse this national
decline.
The Committee believes that local authorities are best placed to
make decisions about provision of green spaces, but highlights
that there is no statutory duty for councils to provide green
spaces. Facing financial constraints, councils are having to
prioritise funding their statutory responsibilities, jeopardising
the allocation of funds for green spaces.
The letter recognises that Government does sometimes provide
one-off grants to local authorities for green spaces but finds
that these are “too sporadic” and can often entail demanding and
competitive application processes.
The EFRA Committee states that there is a strong case for a more
robust funding programme and calls on the Government to consult
with stakeholders on a new consistent funding programme
supporting investment, maintenance costs and staff resourcing, to
come into force in the 2026-27 financial year.
The Committee states that the Government “urgently needs to set
out its plans to tackle recruitment concerns” facing local
authorities, which can hamper the development of local strategies
to create more green space.
The letter also recommends that the Government should, by 2025,
work with industry and Natural England to create a regularly
updated national repository of best practice and mapping tools to
ensure that all local authorities can upskill their staff and
invest in green spaces that serve all local communities
equally.
The Committee’s inquiry finds that without a national strategy on
the issue, green spaces are being deprioritised. While the policy
area is currently spread across Government departments, MPs
believe that there should be a central government organisation
responsible for green infrastructure, or at least “a Minister for
Parks and a cross government working group to fly the flag for
urban green spaces”.
The letter finds that efforts to improve the issue are impeded by
a lack of mandatory targets for urban green spaces and calls for
the Government to work with key stakeholders to develop and
publish a robust set of statutory targets for urban green spaces
by 2025.
The letter also discusses the threats to green spaces arising
from housing development, citing that the “drive for profit and
the culture of the housebuilding sector incentivises high density
builds and deprioritises engagement with local community needs;
green spaces miss out as a result”.
The Committee urges the Department to consult on a clear set of
responsibilities for developers and the construction industry,
and calls on the Government to consider all tools at its
disposal, to guide or require planners to prioritise green
infrastructure.
Further information
- The EFRA Committee’s letter to the Defra Secretary is
attached to this email and can also be found here.
- This letter concludes the EFRA Committee’s inquiry on
Urban Green Spaces. During
the course of this inquiry, the Committee received over 80
pieces of written evidence and held two oral evidence sessions
with representatives from academia, environment NGOs, local
authorities and Natural England.
- You may also be interested in the Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities Committee’s ‘Children, young people and the
built environment’ current inquiry, which is looking at the
role of outdoor play and issues around the equality of access
to public spaces.
- The Health and Social Care Committee has recently published
its report on ‘Prevention in health and
social care: healthy places’.
