Time in nature is a proven health tonic; people who live close to accessible green and blue spaces live healthier, happier and longer lives. Successive Governments have committed to spread these health benefits across the country, through a promise to ensure that everyone has access to green or blue spaces within a 15-minute walk from home.
New data analysis by The Wildlife Trusts and Liberals & Democrats for Nature & Climate shows there is still a long way to go to deliver on this promise. After assessing Defra data and applying it to Westminster boundaries, we can reveal that 238 parliamentary constituencies in England (44% of the total) still have low access to nature. We have defined low access to nature as 20% or more of properties in the constituency being more than 15 minutes’ walk away from accessible green or blue spaces.
Such a proportion of places stuck without access to nature should be a major political concern. Sadly, it simply isn’t being treated as such. Over the past six months, despite 4 in 10 English MPs representing constituencies with low of levels of accessible nature, access to nature has been raised in Commons debates just three times. The Government had promised to bring forward an access to nature green paper, but there is no sign of its publication, or even of its active development within Defra.
