This was the first workshop delivered in the final part of the City of Nature Alliance Pilot Project funded through the Commonwealth Games Legacy funding. The second was the Volunteering / Involved Workshop – https://naturallybirmingham.org/city-of-nature-alliance-involved-city-workshop/ and the third was the Communication Workshop – https://naturallybirmingham.org/city-of-nature-alliance-communicating-workshop/
The Finance workshop was hosted by the Birmingham Parks at their Kings Heath Hub site. 10 people attended the workshop which lasted for four hours.
The City of Nature Plan sets out how green Birmingham is.
Birmingham is one of the greenest cities in Europe with over 600 publicly accessible parks and green spaces across the city. These spaces cover over 4,700 hectares (47 Km2) – for comparison, this is three times the size of the city of Lichfield (14.02 Km2) or 1.5x Worcester (33.3 Km2). 15 of our city’s parks, commons and country parks held the Green Flag Award in 2021 – the national quality award for parks and green spaces, making them among the best in the country.
There are over 1 million trees across the city – to recognise this, Birmingham has earned the prestigious ‘Tree Cities of the World’ status. Connecting these spaces are 160 miles (257km) of canals and 400km of urban brook courses; sometimes referred to as our blue infrastructure.
It also gives an insight into how we manage Green and Blue spaces.
Green and Blue spaces owned by Birmingham City Council are managed through the work of the Parks Service, it’s partners and an increasing number of volunteers who together care for a wide
variety of green spaces from highway verges to large Country Parks. The Ranger Service also help
engage the wider community through conservation land management and educational sessions and a wide range of events and activities helping to keep our city green, clean, and safe.
In recent years our parks and greenspaces nationally have been under huge threat. As a result of austerity and the demand placed on local authorities’ budgets to support statutory services like social care, non statutory services like parks have been facing budget pressures and in turn the number of Parks Officers has been reduced. In response to this, parks innovators in Birmingham and across the country, both inside of local authority parks teams, and outside in universities, community organisations, social enterprises, and charities, show there is a real community of experimenters, activists and entrepreneurs working to allow our parks and greenspaces to evolve, adapt and continue to be at the heart of our communities. But to face the challenges and opportunities ahead, we must continue to adopt and spread the mindset, habits and tools that can support this innovation. The challenges and opportunities ahead create a clear reason for us to keep innovating for the future of our parks and greenspaces and rethink our future parks.
And how we use its green and blue spaces.
Birmingham’s parks and green spaces are our most used leisure and recreation facilities in the
city with estimates suggesting over 58 million person visits per year. Nearly six out of ten (59.9%) of Birmingham residents visit green space on a weekly basis, with a further 17.5% visiting at least monthly. Nearly two thirds of respondents (64.3%) rate green spaces as very valuable local assets and 72% of respondents visit the green space close to home.
The most popular reasons for visiting green spaces in Birmingham are:
- To walk or walk the dog (57.6%).
- Peace and quiet and to relax (54.1%).
- To experience nature and wildlife (48.6%).
More recent data suggested that levels of use of parks and green spaces had increased following Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns. In April 2021, 68% of adults had visited a green and natural space in the last 14 days. A staggering total of 391,548,094 visits were made to green and
natural spaces in this one month alone across the country. Natural England People and Nature Survey bulletin on 16/06/2021. So, what’s the problem?
The Plan sets out the challenges
One of the greatest challenges facing the long term maintenance and recovery of the natural
environment and parks and green spaces, is the issue of funding. The 2016-17 Parliamentary Inquiry ‘The Future of Public Parks’ found that the value of parks and green spaces was well documented but not well understood; so not fully protected in policy. The inquiry found that as a non-statutory service they have often been seen as non-essential services and have suffered disproportionately with budgets reductions imposed after the 2008 global financial crisis and austerity measures. Nationally, there are challenges in terms of finding long term management and sustainable funding solutions that prompted the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government and the National Trust to fund a programme to explore these issues and develop learning across the sector, through the Future Parks Accelerator programme. Birmingham City Council was successful in its application to be one of the eight Future Parks. Accelerator projects and the City of Nature Plan has been developed to form the legacy of this short-term programme to explore and test new solutions.
Historically the economic model adopted by all cities has been a linear one resulting in the maintenance of parks being registered as nothing but a cost; with their value not being captured. In this City of Nature plan is moving away from that model towards a circular economy one, that better fits how the city will need to meet its twin challenges of levelling-up and climate change. The city has developed a Sustainable Finance Framework with external green investors allowing for the long-term investment into the city’s blue and green infrastructure. These mechanisms will help the city realise the true value of the natural environment as captured in this latest Natural Capital Account which valued the city’s future potential green estate as £14.93 billion after 25 years
The “A Valued City” section suggests what we need to do.
To become a valued city of nature with valued green infrastructure and people and be able to realise the full potential for the city’s Natural Capital assets and the benefits they bring we will need to work together to meet the challenge of more need and less funding in a less stable climate.
To do this we need:
- Information demonstrating the wider environmental, social, and economic value of green space through a Natural Capital Account (V1).
- Biodiversity Net Gain and improved access to good quality green spaces using the planning and development process (V2).
- Diversity of income and funding streams for green spaces from supporting communities to crowdfund and secure grants, through to large scale business contributions (V3).
- Increased Council income through commercial activity (V4).
- Added social value to our green spaces through our procurement processes (V5).
- Education and Skills commissioning done through a green lens (V6)
City of Nature Alliance – Finance Workshop Resources
Please find below the workshop notes and presentations from the workshop held on 30th July at Kings Heath Park. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this first workshop whether in person or through conversations preceding the day.
Social Value, Corporate Social Responsibility and Team Building.
For Social Value it is the procurer that needs to consider the social value of the purchase. The Public Services (Social Value) Act came into force on 31 January 2013. It requires people who commission public services to think about how they can also secure wider social, economic and environmental benefits.
Before they start the procurement process, commissioners should think about whether the services they are going to buy, or the way they are going to buy them, could secure these benefits for their area or stakeholders.
The Act is a tool to help commissioners get more value for money out of procurement. It also encourages commissioners to talk to their local provider market or community to design better services, often finding new and innovative solutions to difficult problems.
Government published guidance in December 2012 supporting the Act here
Businesses can contact BCC Parks if they want to talk about how they can meet their social value requirements. https://naturallybirmingham.org/social-value/ or visit the BCC Website: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50209/birmingham_business_charter_for_social_responsibility/1828/the_charter_and_policies
For Corporate Social Responsibility it is the provider who needs to show they are being socially responsible in the way they deliver their business. CSR policies aim to guarantee that companies work ethically, considering human rights as well as the social, economic, and environmental impacts of what they do as a business. Businesses should meet, and aim to exceed, any relevant legislation, and if legislation does not exist in a particular area, the company should ensure they carry out best practices anyway.
Team Building Days. A team building day can contribute to employees or an organisation feeling valued within a business. It may also allow for better relationships across workplace hierarchies, putting everyone on a level playing field for the day and allowing people to build even more connections with people across the whole business.
Any or a combination of all these corporate ideas can help with the delivery of the management of green assets and services. Not only should the council consider all these opportunities but their partners can also consider the benefits of talking to businesses about how they can increase their social value or improve their employee offer.
A few more links to hints and tips:
Finding grant giving charities: https://youtu.be/CUdPDOSccxE?si=kLyph04OvPwj5HT-
Get Fully Funded (USA) Grant tips: https://youtu.be/I8yQxfz-u3E?si=g1BTtgTVJQUFNlu0
Naturally Birmingham Future Parks Project 