Parks should be under power of NHS, says thinktank

The Social Market Foundation has claimed that parks and green spaces across the UK should be seen as a tool of healthcare in the same way as medicines and therapies.

Giving the NHS a role in supporting parks and green spaces would allow doctors to make more use of ‘social prescribing’ techniques where patients are told to take exercise and spend time outdoors to boost physical and mental health. A paper by the foundation, titled Recreating parks, highlights international research which suggests that using parks as a healthcare resource can improve outcomes for patients and significantly reduce demands on GP surgeries.

The cross-party think tank said that post-coronavirus health policies should give NHS England a role in park provision, possibly by giving NHS chiefs access to central government funding for parks. The SMF believes that NHS bodies would be less likely to divert funding away from parks than local councils have been.

Because of the medical benefits and potential saving to the NHS, the SMF paper argues that health bodies should be directly involved in parks. This would continue moves by NHS England to take a role in urban planning and housing policy. Some NHS bodies have even ‘prescribed’ and funded new boilers for patients, because warmer homes improve health.

The paper also poses the idea of introducing new taxes on homeowners close to public parks to raise money for their upkeep, similar to schemes used in US cities such as Chicago and Seattle. In the latter’s King County area, the owner of a $500,000 pays $7 a month to help fund parks, trails and recreational activities.

Despite parks being key during lockdown measures, with the ONS reporting that one in eight UK households has no garden, the SMF found that the 27,000 urban green spaces in the UK are often poorly maintained, with many councils cutting maintenance spending and relying on community groups and National Lottery funding for upkeep.

The SMF’s Linus Pardoe said: “If we acknowledge parks and green space as another means of delivering better health outcomes, should we not look to equip the NHS with the means to ensure the availability of parks? Providing – and funding – medicines, physical and talking therapies is a core function of the NHS, so why not parks? Maybe a health service that can provide new boilers can take a role in ensuring the availability of green spaces too.”