New research by Vivid Economics published today by the National Trust reveals the true value of a large city’s network of public parks and green spaces – and shows that cutting parks budgets is counter-productive, costing more than it saves.
This evidence comes as MPs on the influential House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee today begin hearing evidence for their inquiry into the funding crisis facing public parks.
Recent Heritage Lottery Fund research showed that many councils face unsustainable cuts to their parks budgets of up to 20% – with some councils facing very large cuts of 50-100% by 2020.
The Vivid Economics research which looked at the economic contribution made by Sheffield’s green spaces found that:
- Parks provide benefits worth £1.2bn, not a liability of £16m as they appear in conventional public accounts;
- For every £1 spent on public parks, society receives £34 worth of benefits;
- Around 60% of the benefits of public parks in a large city arise from their contribution to physical and mental wellbeing
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