My Lords, it was an absolute delight to listen to the excellent speech from the noble Earl, Lord Devon, and his call for better-quality access. There is considerable merit in Amendment 8 and especially in Amendment 9, and it probably should be a priority target. I urge my noble friend the Minister to accept them in principle. The amendment tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas is very important. Could Amendments 8 and 9 be amalgamated into one target?
Of course, this is a very difficult area for the Government to set targets in and that is possibly why the Government have not added it to the clause. If you cannot measure it then you cannot manage it, and as for measuring people’s enjoyment of something, I should love to see how one can make a target for people to enjoy something. However, with time and work, I believe that we can figure out some targets in this area, especially on connecting people with nature.
Every month Natural England publishes its people and nature survey. Despite Covid, there are still very much the same patterns emerging. When one looks at March 2020, before lockdown—an idiotic term which I hate—and compares it with April 2021, one gets roughly the same statistics: 30% had not visited a green space or nature in a 14-day period, and of those who did, the vast majority numerically were older people. The justification in April this year by the 34% of people who had not visited was to stop Covid spreading. That is a noble reason not to go. However, I looked at our previous studies, in what was then called the monitor of engagement with the natural environment, and in 2017 more than 30%, the same figure, had not visited a green space. Exactly 34% said that they had not visited because they were too busy, 23% said health reasons and 18% had no interest whatsoever. The justification or excuse may vary but the numbers stay the same.
However, the other statistic that the survey highlights is that of earnings. Of those earning more than £50,000 per annum, 75% reported a visit to a green and natural space. This is compared to 50% of those earning less than £15,000 per annum. Adults earning more than £50,000 also took three times as many visits as those earning less than £15,000. That confirms the anecdotal evidence of our own eyes. You do not see many black and ethnic-community people in their Range Rovers visiting the Lake District National Park, stately homes, or National Trust properties.
There is of course a big cost element for those who cannot afford the time or money to go far visiting green space, but there is also a cultural problem. I was told in a briefing from the creators of the brilliant London National Park City scheme that they found that children walking to school would prefer to take the slightly longer route round by the shops and the high street rather than the shorter route through the local park or green space. There is thus a problem that even when green space is on their doorstep, many people are not connecting with it. That is why Amendment 9 is so important. I believe that Natural England is in discussions with Defra on what more we can do to connect people with nature, and that could lead to a target.
The briefing we have all received from the Ramblers, Open Spaces Society, and others, cannot identify targets, but suggests three areas where it might be possible to set them. I am glad that they acknowledge that this is not easy. Their first suggested area is proximity. Are there access opportunities close to where people live and work? The second is accessibility. Are different types of users, including disabled people, able to connect with and make use of access to green spaces and good quality paths, and do they feel welcome? The third is quality. Are green spaces of sufficient standard to ensure that people want to use them?
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Leaving aside the problem that even when green space is nearby many people will not use it, I say that if people will not go to the space, we need to bring the space right to their doorstep. I commend the excellent report published in January last year—with that timing, it disappeared without trace, unfortunately—called Living With Beauty. It was written by the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, a body set up by the Government. Chapter 11 is called “Nature: re-green our towns and cities.” It says
“There is a considerable body of evidence that shows green spaces in rural and urban areas are highly beneficial to health and well-being and also provide space for people to meet … The presence of greenery in the urban environment normally has a positive impact on our mental and our physical health”.
The report continues:
“The evidence also suggests that greenery has the most beneficial consequences when it is ‘little and often’, when you encounter it frequently throughout your daily life. For maximum impact, public green space needs to be frequent, close and, therefore usually, modest in size. Large parks are great for those who live by them, have to pass through them daily or have the leisure to visit them. They are not so helpful for everyone else. Evidence suggests that people will frequently go to an open space if it is less than 2-3 blocks away (about 225m) but very sharply less frequently if it is further away than that. In MORI focus groups many (particularly parents) would trade off even further in favour of immediate access to private green spaces.”
I had to read that a few times—I found it rather frightening. More than 225 metres, and people were reluctant to walk that far to get to a mini-park. The report recommends massive urban tree planting, mini-parks within a few hundred yards of home, gardens and a fruit tree for every home and opening up our canals and waterways. Unfortunately the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which commissioned the report, in its recent National Planning Policy Framework and National Model Design Code consultation proposals failed to take on board any other of those recommendations. The recommendations it did take on board did not go down too well in Chesham and Amersham, I understand. So we can expect far too many of the 300,000 new homes to be packed together like battery cages with no or tiny gardens and no green space for parks for miles. That is a missed opportunity, I submit.
There is no time in this debate to go into detail on the social prescribing initiative which is being run with Natural England, the NHS and PHE. That is connecting people with nature and has tremendous potential. I am certain that that is an area where we could really develop a target.
I want to say a bit more, provoked by the noble Earl, Lord Devon, on connecting people with nature. It is more than just being out and about and whizzing through it. Many years ago, when I was taken through the Louvre by my wife, I walked past all the paintings such as the “Mona Lisa”, and it left my cold—I thought it was boring as sin. Then I went down to the basement and found the Roman and Greek architecture, the statutes and material there. I tried to remember my classical education, I found it absolutely fascinating and I spent the rest of the day there. I now realise that I was connecting with something that I related to.
Last summer, I was being driven by the side of Ullswater on a lovely day. There were a few cyclists, and all one could see of them in their lycra were their bums up in the air and heads down, and they could see the tarmac for about six feet ahead. What is the point? Why cycle down the side of Ullswater and not look at the thing—not look at the mountains? If you want to just race, you can belt around the streets of Penrith.
Finally, every day I come to the Lords, and going home—perhaps not tonight—I like to cut through Victorian Gardens, because the park there is much nicer than going along Millbank. A few years ago, I was coming through there and my wife said, “Stop and listen”. I said, “Why, what’s wrong?” She said, “Listen to the blackbirds”. I said, “So what, it’s blackbirds”. She said, “Yes, but they sing louder in London and other cities than they do in the countryside, because they have to above the noise”. From then on, every time I went through the park I would stop and listen, and then I would actually look at the plants coming out, and their growth. I began to realise that I was connecting with that bit of nature. That is my amateurish way of agreeing with the noble Earl, Lord Devon. It is not good enough whizzing through nature. Yes, we need more people out in nature, but we need them connecting with it more and understanding it more, with better quality access.
I hope that my noble friend will give these amendments serious consideration. It will be difficult to devise meaningful targets and it may take more time than the other four in this category, but it can be done with effort and good will. If he takes away one message tonight, it should be from the speech of the noble Earl, Lord Devon.