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Defra report points out £30bn annual health and welfare benefits from maintaining natural assets Maintaining the UK’s green spaces would reap at least £30bn a year in health and welfare benefits, according to the first attempt to put a price on the natural environment. About a third of the UK’s natural assets – including green spaces, rivers, wetlands and important wildlife habitats – is in danger of being lost to development or degraded through neglect, says a report by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The national ecosystem assessment found a marked decline in urban green space, with 10,000 playing fields sold between 1979 and 1997, while only 10% of the UK’s allotments remain. The health benefits of living with a view of green spaces are given a value of up to £300 per person per year, the report says, because they provide areas for exercise and looking at nature lifts people’s spirits. Living close to rivers, coasts and wetlands is also a boon – benefits to residents are about £1.3bn a year. Bob Watson, chief scientific advisor to Defra and co-author of the report, said the assessment should be used to shape government policy at national and local level. “Putting a value on these natural services enables them to be incorporated into policy in the same way that other factors are. We can’t persist in thinking of these things as free. We have to become much better at managing our ecosystems,” he said. While such “ecosystem services” are worth £30bn a year, failing to look after the UK’s natural environment would cost at least £20bn a year, the assessment found. Inland wetlands are worth £1.5bn a year in improving water quality alone and pollinators such as bees are worth at least £430m a year to agriculture. Although the authors were reluctant to put a single figure on the value of the natural environment, the report shows it runs into hundreds of billions of pounds. “Green spaces and blue spaces [such as rivers] have an incredible value. Urban planners need to recognise that value,” said Professor Ian Bateman, co-author of the report. Caroline Spelman, secretary of state for the environment, said: “The assessment is a vital step forward in our ability to understand the true value of nature and how to sustain the benefits it gives us. I want our children to be the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than it was left to them.” However, the government has been accused of failing to look after the UK’s natural environment by classifying dozens of environmental and countryside regulations as “red tape” that may be axed as part of its promised “bonfire of regulations”. Within the next few weeks, the government is expected to issue its natural environment white paper, which will draw on the ecosystem assessment. It is expected to include measures to protect areas of beauty and scientific interest, as well as proposals on green spaces. Conservation Wildlife Biodiversity Green politics Rivers Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk