New research published by Vivid Economics and Barton Wilmore, commissioned by the National Trust and partners, makes a powerful economic case for such a significant investment across the UK in greening the country’s most left behind and greyest urban communities over the next five years.
This green infrastructure investment would bring an impressive £200 billion in physical health benefits through disease prevention and mental wellbeing benefits to alleviate some of the strain on local health service providers and to improve people’s quality of life.
Over 20 million people would feel the benefit from this investment, nearly a third of the UK population. Local economies would also benefit from job creation, particularly in those areas of the country facing high levels of unemployment, with an estimated 40,000 jobs in initial construction and over 6,000 created permanently for ongoing maintenance.