Of the multiple drivers of systemic inequality in our society, let’s consider two dynamics that relate particularly to parks and greenspace:

The first dynamic driving inequality of access to greenspaces is that the system we have created is incrementally pushing poorer communities away from them. When it comes to greenspaces, living close matters. People who live within a five-minute walk of their local greenspace are significantly more likely (61 per cent) to visit once a week or more often, compared to those living further away (40 per cent for those who live 5 to 10 minutes walk away and 18 per cent for people living 11 to 20 minutes away). People want to live closer to parks, which raises the value of property near parks and pushes people who can’t afford it further away.

The addition to property values associated with living near a greenspace is estimated to be just over £130 billion in the UK. This is seen as a positive thing from the perspective of our economic indicators, but disadvantaged people are being further disadvantaged through diminishing access to greenspace.

Compounding this, the places that get investment in their parks and greenspaces are then more likely to get more investment.

More subtle than this, and perhaps more discomforting, is the psychological alienation that accompanies this physical alienation. This reinforcing feedback loop means the more you get told that this space is not for you, the more you start to believe it. This is the degradation of trust in the system as people experience the impacts of this systemic inequality. Poor communities have their needs weaponised against them - “you can’t stop this, it’s for your housing development” - or underused spaces are taken away from them just as they start to stake a claim of ownership and participation. Local councils are not to blame for this dynamic, far from it; local councils themselves are victims of the perverse incentives embedded in the system: the pressure to generate capital sales receipts often outweighs the long-term social value created by parks. The march of privatisation of greenspaces therefore continues, and with it the sense that these spaces are shared in common, for us all to participate in and care for. The implicit message of the market mechanism - ‘you get what you pay for’ - alienates people from caring for their local greenspaces, and deteriorates what’s left of the public commons - those spaces held for the common good.

Civil society is asking for change. The Independent Inquiry into Civil Society Futures that heard from over 3,000 people across English civil society (from Penzance to Sunderland) put forward a PACT for civil society: a great power shift; an accountability revolution; building deeper, closer connections and investing in trust. Some councils are leading this shift in power towards civil society, for example by developing policies for community asset transfer and partnering with communities to reimagine local spaces, with glowing examples like Organic Lea and Tomorrow Today Streets.