Community green: using local spaces to tackle inequality and improve health 1 Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Literature and project review 9 3 The household survey 18 4 Key findings and conclusion 40 Bibliography 45 Appendices 49 2 1 Introduction Community green uniquely investigates The report demonstrates that improving urban the inter-relationship between urban green green space represents an important and cost- space, inequality, ethnicity, health and effective opportunity for people to transform their local neighbourhoods and improve their quality of wellbeing. It is the largest study of its kind life. Local people are best placed to know the in England.1 benefits that good-quality green spaces contribute to their community. But they have not always had Some of the most acute effects of the opportunity to direct improvements to their deprivation are felt by black and minority local environment. ethnic communities living on a low income A changed political and economic landscape in urban areas. The poor quality of their will include a fundamentally different relationship local environment has a considerable between local people and landowners, including impact on their health and wellbeing. registered social housing providers and local authorities. The most obvious opportunity is People living in deprived urban areas improving the open space on social housing estates. recognise and appreciate the value of Chapter 4 sets out the findings from the study. local green spaces, but they underuse the Background to the study spaces that are most convenient because these spaces are often poor quality and Sustained investment in recent years arrested feel unsafe. The study found, for instance, the historic decline of public urban green spaces, that less than 1 per cent of people living in especially parks. People are using their parks social housing reported using the green and green spaces more, and value them more. space on their estate. Almost nine out of 10 people use parks and green spaces and value this use for their health and wellbeing.2 But even during this period of relative prosperity, not everywhere benefited equally. This study follows earlier research commissioned by CABE, Urban green nation: building the evidence base, ‘ Cultural diversity enriches and vitalises which explored over 70 major data sources to discover collective life, and is desirable not only what the quantitative data says about England’s publicly owned and managed urban green space. It found that if for minority communities but also for you live in a deprived inner-city area you have access to the society as a whole. It adds a valuable five times fewer public parks and good-quality general aesthetic dimension to society, widens green space than people in more affluent areas.3 the range of moral sympathy and imagination, and encourages critical self- In this second piece of research, Community reflection…When the public realm prizes green: using local spaces to tackle inequality and improve health, we focused on ethnicity because uniformity, diversity tends to be devalued diversity is increasing. It is no longer accurate to throughout society’5 talk about ethnic ‘minorities’ in some areas. In the Professor Bhikhu Parekh last decade there has been a large increase in the percentage of black and minority ethnic young people. For instance, half of the Bangladeshi 1 Research by OPENspace research centre, Edinburgh College of Art, in population in Britain is under the age of 21.4 collaboration with Heriot-Watt University. 2 Urban green nation: building the evidence base CABE, 2010 3 Urban green nation: building the evidence base CABE, 2010 4 Ethnicity and family: relationships within and between ethnic groups, Platts, 2009 5 Link expired 3 Health, ethnicity and inequality Providing good-quality green space is a hugely effective way to tackle these inequalities. Green Urban green nation also revealed that in areas where space has been proven to reduce the impact of more than 40 per cent of residents are black or deprivation, deliver better health and wellbeing minority ethnic there is 11 times less green space than and create a strong community. The simple in areas where residents are largely white. And the presence of green space is related to a reduced spaces they do have are likely to be of a poorer quality. risk of serious problems like depression and lung disease. Living close to green space reduces Although where you live and the services you receive mortality, which can help reduce the significant is intimately related to income, our research found gap in life expectancy between rich and poor.10 a difference, by ethnicity, that was over and above what would be expected for level of income alone. The Liverpool city green infrastructure strategy The majority of the UK’s black and minority ethnic identifies areas of the city where climate change communities live in the most deprived wards in may have a particular impact. It highlights a English inner-cities. The poverty rate for Britain’s relationship between high levels of coronary black and minority ethnic residents overall is heart disease and poor mental health and low 40 per cent, double the rate for white British quantities of green space in parts of the city. people. Furthermore, child poverty is highest, up The strategy’s action plan sets out 37 actions to 74 per cent among Bangladeshi children.6 to ensure that green infrastructure is built into proposals to deliver health and wellbeing The relationship between low income and poor benefits and help address potential issues that, health follows a social gradient.7 People living if not addressed, will arise in the long term.11 on a low income are more likely to experience worse health and be less physically active. The 2010 Marmot Review of health inequalities revealed that the gap in life expectancy between the rich and poor is greater in England than in three quarters of the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD) countries.8 In addition, some groups report worse health. Bangladeshi and Pakistani people and African-Caribbean women, for instance, are more likely to report bad or very bad health compared to the general population.9 This inequality matters. Some people must manage a greater number of burdens yet have fewer economic and environmental assets or resources to draw upon. Historically, poor areas in towns and cities have 6 Ethnicity and family: relationships within and between ethnic groups, Platts, been exposed to a larger share of environmental 2009 7 Focus on health, Bajekal and Osbourne, 2006. risks and dangers. In a changing climate they 8 F air society, healthy lives The Marmot Review, Strategic review of health are also most likely to suffer disproportionately. inequalities in England post-2010, 2010. For a list of the OECD countries 9 The health of minority ethnic groups, Health survey for England, 2004 For example, they are more likely to flood and 10 Effect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: an to experience the urban heat island effect. observational population study, Mitchell, R and Popham, F, The Lancet: 372, 2008. 11 The Liverpool city green infrastructure strategy, Mersey Forest Commissioned Planning for the future must take this into account by Liverpool City Council on behalf of Liverpool First for Health and and ensure some areas are not more likely to be Well Being, 2010. hazardous to health and wellbeing than others. 4 The study methodology This study used a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods: There is little research investigating income and race inequalities in relation to urban green space A literature review of over 100 publications provision and use. While a lot is already known and articles on urban green space, deprivation about the relationships between income and and ethnicity and its contribution to health ethnicity, and income and health, there have been and wellbeing. A review of 50 projects very few studies that look at how green space, engaging people in the design, ownership ethnicity or deprivation, and health are related. and management of local urban green space A handful of studies have looked at this within supplemented the results of the literature the context of urban areas. Few are large scale. review. The results are set out in chapter 2. This study fills a significant information gap. 523 face-to-face, 45-minute-long facilitated The study set out to investigate: interviews with white British (22 per cent of interviewees), Pakistani (22 per cent), 1. How significant the quality of urban green Bangladeshi (17 per cent), black African and space is to the health and wellbeing of different African-Caribbean (12 per cent) and Indian socio-economic and ethnic communities living people (11 per cent).14 People were asked in six deprived urban areas of England how important their local green spaces are in relation to other factors in making an area 2. The impact of varying quality of urban green ‘a good place to live’. The survey also asked space on health and wellbeing in these areas. people about their health, their use of green space, the quality of their local green spaces and It focuses on six deprived and ethnically diverse how improvements to their local spaces would study areas. However, we found lessons that affect their use, and levels of physical activity. are applicable to all neighbourhoods, regardless of their level of material deprivation or size of their Focus groups discussing how access to, minority ethnic population. and use of, urban green space affects health and wellbeing among residents in four of Pairs of urban areas were chosen from six of the case study areas and facilitated three regions: audits, involving community members and professionals, to assess the quality and provision two in the Greater Manchester area – Greater of green space in all the case study areas. The Manchester A and Greater Manchester B results are set out in appendices 3 and 4. two in the West Midlands – West Midlands A and West Midlands B We found that people were very willing to talk two in London – London A and London B. to us about their local green spaces, especially those households with children.15 The results The areas were chosen because of their high of the survey are set out in chapter 3. level of deprivation, high percentage of black and minority ethnic populations and because they contained green spaces of different levels of quality.12 Information on the quantity and quality of green space in the areas was drawn from Urban green nation. The pairs of areas in 12 Indices of multiple deprivation data. Areas chosen from the top 20 per cent the three regions contained similar amounts of of deprived neighbourhoods. 13 Information on quantity of green space was derived from the generalised land green space: no less than 20 per cent and no use database (GLUD) and CABE green space data. Urban green nation more than 45 per cent of their total area.13 outlines the strengths and weaknesses of GLUD for calculating quantity of green space in urban areas 14 16 per cent of people were from other black and minority ethnic groups that included dual heritage people, Chinese and Turkish people. African-Caribbean and black African interviewees were combined into one group for analysis due to small study numbers. 15 68 per cent of people we asked agreed to take part in the survey. 5 Environmental justice and inclusion ‘ A vital sense of belonging and ownership of the environment at large The term ‘environmental justice’ began to appear is a basic building block for the care within mainstream political debates in the UK in the of the environment….There is a whole late 1990s. Other countries have a longer history. field of work to be done with regard For instance, in India in the 1970s, the Chipko and to the research and expression of the Appiko movements were founded to fight against deforestation and for the rights of the people who multicultural fact of Britain’s landscape.’ depended on the forest for their livelihood. Judy Ling Wong, Director, BEN 18 ‘ The principles of environmental justice The duty to promote race equality was enshrined in the are pretty simple. Living in a clean and Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. Nonetheless, healthy environment is everyone’s right. in 2001, Professor Julian Agyeman argued that The most vulnerable people with the least black and minority ethnic people continue to be: power and money see these rights denied ‘ Routinely short-changed by a on a daily basis. For example, air pollution, systematic indifference to their the siting of hazardous installations, environmental and planning needs.’19 flooding, inadequate enforcement of environmental laws, bad urban planning; or simply not having any access to the The recognition of equity and justice within natural environment’ environmental management and policy is intimately related to sustainability. For instance, the 1999 Capacity Global16 UK Sustainable Development Strategy states that everybody should share equally the benefits of a In Kenya, Wangari Maatai established the Green Belt clean and safe environment. Future generations, and Movement in the late 1970s to promote environmental those living elsewhere in the world, should not be conservation and community development with treated unfairly in the pursuit of our own needs.20 women living in poor rural areas. And in America, the recognition of the social dimensions of exposure to environmental risk emerged in the 1980s through the work of grassroots community activists. Women were often prominent in these movements. Prior to the 1990s, work around inclusion in the environmental sector in the UK was expressed under the banner of ‘equality of opportunity’. In 1989, work by environmental thinkers such as Professor Julian Agyeman and Judy Ling Wong culminated in the establishment of the Black Environment Network (BEN).17 Established to facilitate participation of all ethnicities in the use, enjoyment and protection of 16 Capacity Global is a UK based non-governmental organisation and social the environment, BEN challenged the traditional enterprise which works on environmental justice issues. It works with people and communities in urban areas who suffer from social, environmental and focus of nature conservation and highlighted the economic deprivation, to ensure their voices get heard www.capacity.org.uk/ importance of focusing attention on encouraging 17 www.ben-network.org.uk/ access to nature for all people. BEN argues that 18 All colours green, article for New ground – the magazine of Labour’s environmental campaign Spring 1997. there is no such thing as a purely environmental 19 Ethnic minorities in Britain: Short change, systematic indifference and project – the specific social, cultural and economic sustainable development, Agyeman, J, 2001, Journal of environmental policy and planning (3). context must always be taken into account. 20 Link expired 6 Figure 1: Health, wellbeing and sustainability CABE’s publication Future health: sustainable places for health and wellbeing sets out how good design makes healthy places.21 The Venn diagram shows the inter-relationship between health, wellbeing and sustainability, and how quality design to address one can benefit the others. HEALTH QUALITY DESIGN WELLBEING SUSTAINABILITY The agenda of environmental justice or equity continues to evolve. For instance, local authority sustainable development strategies are now required to address equity and justice issues and ensure that the perspectives of black and minority ethnic groups are incorporated. At a national level policies, such as DEFRA’s Outdoors for All strategy, aims to improve equality of access to urban and rural open space over the next 10 years.22 The following chapters of this report set out the results of the research. 21 Link expired 22 Link expired 7 Defining deprivation Defining ethnicity Deprivation can be defined in terms of income Key characteristics of ethnicity are a sense of poverty and the deprivation of material goods belonging and a shared history and cultural such as housing, clothing and heat, alongside knowledge. An ethnic group is defined by Bhikhu subjective measures such as how people on a Parekh in The future of multi-ethnic Britain as: low income feel.23 Most research in England uses the indices of multiple deprivation (IMD) which ‘A group of people who share common historical combine several indicators, covering a range of experiences, a cluster of cultural beliefs and economic, social and housing issues, into a single practices, a broad collective consciousness of deprivation score.24 This study used information belonging together, and see themselves and from the index of multiple deprivation as one are seen by others as more or less distinct.’27 criterion for the selection of the case study areas. Ethnicity is more difficult to categorise than deprivation.28 It has a number of ingredients. It may Defining wellbeing include a shared religion or language, but it may not. Wellbeing is a term that is used interchangeably There appears to be little consensus on appropriate with quality of life, happiness and satisfaction. terms to use when describing different groups of This study used the World Health Organisation’s people that originate from different parts of the definition of wellbeing: ‘health is a state of complete world.29 This study’s literature review found that physical, mental and social wellbeing and not various categorisations of ethnic group were used merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.25 across different research studies. Most typically it was the 2001 census’s 15 categories of ethnicity. In addition, this study drew on the work of McAllister which recognises the need for both This report uses the terminology ‘black and objective and subjective measures of wellbeing.26 minority ethnic people’ but wherever possible it This defines the main areas of wellbeing as: identifies the specific ethnic group, for instance Bangladeshi or African-Caribbean, to which the • physical health research is referring. It is recognised that this is • income and wealth not perfect – ethnicity is dynamic, open and fluid, • relationships constantly undergoing adaptation and change.30 • meaningful work and leisure • personal stability Ethnicity was self-reported in our study’s survey. • lack of depression. Interviewees were asked which ethnic group they belonged to. The survey was flexible. Interviewees The study focused on physical and mental could name another ethnic group if they felt the health, relationships and meaningful leisure, as categories of ethnicity used were unsuitable. these are the areas known to have a relationship with access to and use of green space. 23 Poverty and ethnicity in the UK, a report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Platts, 2006 24 F rom seven domains of deprivation: income, employment, health, education, housing, living environment and crime. 25 Link expired 26 W ellbeing concepts and challenges: discussion paper, McAllister, F, 2005. 27 T he future of multi-ethnic Britain, Parekh, 2001. 28 T he study focuses on ethnicity to allow a wider analysis away from visible physical difference. For more discussion on the concepts of race and ethnicity see The new countryside? Neal and Agyeman, 2006. 29 Ethnic communities and green spaces: guidance for green space managers, Black Environment Network, 2005. 30 Ethnicity, race and health in multicultural societies: foundations for better epidemiology, public health and health care, Bhopal, 2007. 8 2 Literature and project review: health, ethnicity and inequality To date, most of the research on race and Ethnicity in England ethnicity and access to green space has The ethnic profile of the UK is in a rapid state of focused on rural contexts.31 transition – diversity is increasing. The white British population are generally older and their population This study’s literature review identified growth is generally slower than those of other black existing research relating to urban green and minority ethnic groups.34 In the last decade space, deprivation and ethnicity, and there has been a large increase in the percentage how access to green space contributes of black and minority ethnic young people and to wellbeing. It explored around 100 they now constitute 20 per cent of under-16- year-olds.35 The fastest growing groups are black publications and articles, including African people and Bangladeshi people – half of the international research, and over 50 Bangladeshi population is under the age of 21.36 practical projects engaging people in urban green space.32 The findings from Most of the United Kingdom’s black and minority this review helped inform the household ethnic people live in England: in inner-city urban survey (chapter 3). areas and in the most deprived wards. The 44 most deprived local authority areas in England contain proportionally four times more people from black and Overall, the review found that there is minority ethnic groups than other areas.37 Forty-five a lack of in-depth research. Although per cent of the United Kingdom’s black and minority most black and minority ethnic people in ethnic people live in London, and the West Midlands England live in urban areas, there are only a has the second largest proportion at 13 per cent.38 handful of studies offering evidence of the relationship between income inequalities, Some ethnic groups are more likely to live in certain areas. In particular, Bangladeshi and Pakistani people ethnicity and access to urban green are the most geographically concentrated and are space.33 Little large-scale research has most likely to live in deprived neighbourhoods.39 Black looked at the relationship between use of Africans are also concentrated, with 83 per cent living urban green space and ethnicity. in five cities (London, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool and Cardiff).40 The concentration of different groups in specific areas should not be taken to mean that people do not want to move away to more diverse neighbourhoods. Issues such as level of income, unwillingness to move away from family and friends, fear and threat of racism continue to restrict choice.41 31 For more information see The new countryside? Agyeman and Neal (eds), 2006. 32 Databases searched included; Science direct, Web of knowledge, Google Housing tenure also varies among different black and scholar and PubMed. Specific journals searched included Environment and behaviour, Environment and planning, Geoforum, Journal of urban studies minority ethnic groups. Indians and Pakistanis are and landscape research. A range of search terms were used: for example, most likely to own their own home and black Africans poverty/deprivation and ethnicity/race and urban green space. 33 Enclaves, neighbourhood effects and employment outcomes: ethnic minorities are least likely to.42 Black African households are in England and Wales, Clark and Drinkwater, 2002 most likely to rent from a local authority, registered 34 Link expired social landlord or private landlord. By contrast, 35 Link expired 36 Link expired African-Caribbean housing patterns show a more 37 Enclaves, neighbourhood effects and employment outcomes: ethnic minorities suburban distribution and have a much higher in England and Wales, Clark and Drinkwater, 2002 38 Link expired level of home ownership. Bangladeshis are the 39 Link expired most disadvantaged in terms of housing.43 40 Black Africans in Great Britain: spatial concentration and segregation, Daley 2002 41 Planning for the Future: Housing needs and aspirations of ethnic minority communities, Housing Corporation, 2008 42 The new countryside? Agyeman and Neal (eds), 2006 and Black Africans in Great Britain: spatial concentration and segregation, Daley 2002. 43 Link expired 9 Table 1: Ethnicity and poverty in the UK44 Ethnic group Percentage of UK Percentage of Percentage of children population ethnic group living in by ethnic group living in income poverty income poverty African-Caribbean 1 30 37 Bangladeshi 0.5 65 74 Black African 0.8 45 56 Dual heritage 1.2 32 40 Indian 1.8 25 32 Pakistani 1.3 55 60 White 92 20 25 Inequalities in income a difference, by ethnicity, over and above what would be expected for level of income alone. Although the educational achievements and economic status of different black and minority ethnic groups The literature review for this study identified existing are improving there are stark differences in the qualitative and quantitative research on inequality poverty rates, and in the experience of deprivation, in the provision of urban green space, deprivation according to ethnicity in the UK. All black and and ethnicity. Research to date, within the UK and minority ethnic groups experience a greater level internationally, has largely focused on the quantity (or of deprivation than white British groups.45 presence) of green space in relation to deprivation. There is a big gap in research that links the quality The poverty rate for Britain’s black and minority of urban green space to deprivation and ethnicity. ethnic groups overall is 40 per cent, double that The review backed up the findings of Urban green found among white British people. Nearly all nation – that people in deprived areas, wherever minority ethnic groups are less likely to be in paid they live, receive a far worse provision of parks and employment than white British men and women.46 green spaces than their affluent neighbours.48 Table 1 shows that rates of poverty are highest for Research by Mitchell and Popham found associations Bangladeshi, Pakistani and black African people, between income deprivation and the percentage of reaching 65 per cent for Bangladeshi people. green space in England. People with less exposure Furthermore, child poverty rates are highest to green space were more likely to suffer from among Bangladeshi children (74 per cent). deprivation than those with a greater exposure to green space.49 In Glasgow, McIntyre et al found Inequalities in the provision of urban green space income inequalities in accessing green space; wealthier areas had access to more parks, tennis CABE research, Urban green nation, found that in courts and bowling greens, although poorer urban areas black and minority ethnic people tend to neighbourhoods had a higher number of play areas.50 have access to less local green space and the space they do have is of a poorer quality. Wards that have 44 Link expired 45 Link expired almost no black and minority residents (less than 2 46 A n anatomy of economic inequality in the UK – summary, Report of the National per cent of ward population) have six times as many equality panel, Government Equalities Office, 2010. 47 Urban green nation: Building the evidence base, CABE, 2010 parks as wards where more than 40 per cent of the 48 U rban green nation: Building the evidence base, CABE, 2010 population are people from black and minority ethnic 49 E ffect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: an groups. If all types of public green space, not just observational population study, Mitchell, R and Popham, F, The Lancet: 372, 2008. parks, are looked at, the difference is 11 times.47 50 Do poorer people have poorer access to local resources and facilities? The distribution of local resources by area deprivation in Glasgow, Scotland, McIntyre et al, Social science and medicine: 67: 900-14, 2008. We recognise that this is intimately related to the circularity of disadvantage but our research found 10