Natural Capital Accounts for Public Green Space in London
Vivid worked in partnership with the Greater London Authority, National Trust and Heritage Lottery Fund to produce a natural capital account for London’s public green spaces. The account reveals the enormous economic value of London’s public green spaces. The headlines are:
- London’s public green space have a gross asset value in excess of £91 billion, providing services valued at £5 billion per year.
- For each £1 spent by local authorities and their partners on public green space, Londoners enjoy at least £27 in value.
- Londoners avoid £950 million per year in health costs due to public green space.
- The value of recreational activities is estimated to be £926 million per year.
- For the average household in London, the monetary value of being in close proximity to a park or green space is over £900 per year.
- These economic benefits are not spread equally across or within London borough’s.
Natural capital accounting is a methodology that is rapidly gaining acceptance as a necessary requirement to inform decision-making. The Government has committed to including natural capital accounts in the UK environment accounts – compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – by 2020. This is to ensure that natural capital accounts can be used alongside other key indicators of economic performance. ONS has been charged by Government to develop a roadmap to enable this. The Natural Capital Account for London’s Public Green Spaces is a significant contribution to the work necessary to ensure that natural capital accounting is applicable in an urban context and can be applied effectively to urban green infrastructure.
The Appendix is available for download here.
Date: November 2017
