The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has committed to increasing, enhancing and connecting London’s much-loved green spaces as a key part of his plans for a green recovery from COVID-19.
London’s parks and green spaces are a fundamental part of city life and the pandemic has revealed that they are more important to us than ever before. Despite this, parks and green spaces continue to face significant challenges. Increasing pressure on boroughs and a general reduction in funding has led to neglected spaces and overstretched staff.
This challenging context was the reason the Mayor set up his Green Spaces Commission in 2019. The Commission, a diverse group of 14 experts, proposed two key recommendations to help boroughs transform how their parks’ services are managed and funded:
- establish a Centre for Excellence for London’s green spaces to champion their many benefits and secure investment; and
- set up a new Greenspace Skills programme.
On the first point, the Commission identified Parks for London as the best organisation to become this Centre for Excellence. We are now supporting the charity with this exciting new chapter, working closely with London Councils, the London Environment Directors Network (LEDnet) and the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association (CLOA) to deliver the Commission’s recommendation. Parks for London will help unite the fragmented green space sector and provide London-wide coordination across sectors including health, housing, culture and sport. Three new trustees have been appointed to help drive this vision and new staff are joining Parks for London to deliver high quality communications and research and support the development of a health and green spaces programme.
Getting your daily dose of nature
The importance of green space to both physical and mental health is well known. Part of the reason urban parks were first conceived by the Victorians was to create respite from overcrowding and help address poor health. Sadly, poor environmental conditions continue to have a disproportionate impact on Londoners, with those living in the most deprived areas most likely to experience poor air quality and limited access to green space.
Parks for London’s first programme as a Centre for Excellence will focus on health inequalities. It will use its networks, influence and unique position to showcase successful health and green space projects from across London, highlighting the opportunities for joint working, sharing good practice and reducing barriers to action. This will require working closely with communities and drawing on their wealth of local knowledge. Supporting the invaluable voluntary action that already exists through Friends of Parks Groups, the National Park City coalition and GoParks will also be key. Parks for London will also identify new partnerships to improve and connect green space in communities most in need, including working with housing providers to enhance the space around existing homes and estates.
Looking ahead, securing long term funding is vital to growing this work and grounding it on a sustainable footing. We are working with the Green Finance Institute and other funders to identify models for a future greenspace investment fund.
Building skills
The work of the London Recovery Board in supporting London through its recovery from the pandemic has identified a Green New Deal as a central mission to its work. This involves doubling the green economy and increasing the green jobs and skills in the city to address the impact on jobs from the pandemic. The Commission’s second recommendation for a future skills programme is progressing as part of this wider recovery work.
The green space sector currently has an ageing workforce lacking in diversity. London’s green recovery and the work off the back of the commission provide significant opportunities to grow and develop the workforce in the green space sector to one that is more inclusive, flexible and able to respond to the multiple challenges of 21st century London. This includes creating a London that is more resilient to a changing climate and supports biodiversity. Green jobs will be at the heart of London’s recovery and the evidence is clear that better nature equals more jobs.
As part of the wider development of skills academies, the Mayor is committed to supporting a green skills academy that will help Londoners, particularly those impacted by the pandemic to progress into new green jobs and apprenticeships. Bolstering the green space sector and the diversity of jobs and skills within it will be a core part of developing a resilient green economy. Our work is designed to offer access to a wide range of essential roles that are needed to unlock the many benefits of our green spaces.
In the Mayor’s first term, he confirmed London as the world’s first National Park City, planted over 330,000 trees and improved more than 400 hectares of green space. Newly re-elected, the Mayor is doubling down on his commitment to safeguard our world class network of green spaces. His vision is for a city where all Londoners have access to the many benefits of high-quality green space and he is now setting about delivering this.
The Centre for Excellence is an essential part of realising this vision.