There are urban areas of England where no one lives within a 15-minute walk of nature, government data shows, as ministers struggle to meet their nature access targets.
While the data shows that 80% of people live within walking distance of green or blue spaces such as a river, park or forest, it also reveals a disparity between rural and poorer urban areas.
Everyone will have to have access to green or blue spaces under the government’s environmental improvement plan, published late last year.
In some areas of the municipalities, less than 20% of residents live near these spaces, according to data published on Wednesday by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In one part of Middlesbrough, for example – the most deprived local authority in England – only 1% of people are within 15 minutes of nature, and in another, only 16%.
In two parts of Doncaster, no house is recorded as being within 15 minutes of green or blue space. There are also multiple areas of cities, including Bristol and Southampton, where no one has access to green space.
For local authorities as a whole, London has swaths of areas where many people are not within walking distance of green space. In Harrow, the City of London, Croydon and Waltham Forest, less than half of people meet the 15-minute standard.
Similarly, less than half of people are within a 15-minute walk of green space in north-east Lincolnshire, Leicester, Gedling, Nottingham and Knowsley.
Access Minister Helene Hayman said: “Spending time in nature is so important for our physical and mental wellbeing, and this Government is committed to providing better access to nature for people across the country, no matter where they live.
“Access to nature still varies hugely between areas and we are working to ensure this is a guarantee, not a postcode lottery. We have already taken steps to improve access to nature by announcing the first of nine national river walks, the Mersey Valley Way and two new national forests.”
The data found that 91% of rural households have access to green or blue spaces compared to 78% of urban households.
According to previously published government data, in the 200 most deprived local areas in urban environments with the lowest levels of green space, 97% do not have access to green space within a 15-minute walk of their home.
Nature campaigners have said government policies to deregulate housing and infrastructure planning policy could lead to an erosion in the amount of green space available, particularly for those in less advantaged urban areas.
The new legislation means property developers will be able to build on once protected green spaces without having to replace the loss of nature in the surrounding area.
Lack of access to nature has crucial implications for physical and mental health. Recent studies show that living near parks or natural green spaces reduces anxiety and depression by approximately 20%.
In contrast, those living more than 800 meters from green space reported notably higher levels of wellbeing problems, particularly during Covid-19 lockdowns. There are therefore risks that the growing unaffordability of housing in nature-rich areas for younger homeowners may be deepening health inequalities.
Paul de Zylva of Friends of the Earth said: “Everyone deserves access to natural spaces teeming with life and the many benefits they bring to the health and well-being of our communities and the planet.
“What these figures do not tell us is the quality of the green and blue spaces that people can access, where there is better provision and the other factors at play that determine who enjoys nature and who does not.”
And he added: “The United Kingdom is one of the countries in the world with the greatest amount of depleted nature. It is one thing to have natural spaces around the corner, but they have to be places where nature can thrive, not degraded and polluted like so many others.”
