The Legacy
The green spaces in and around social housing are generally some of our worst.Why?
- significant legacy of poorly-designed and under-managed spaces
- high fragmentation (compared to parks and other public open spaces)
- accumulative disinvestment over many decades
- ambiguous ownership for users
- lack of awareness of their potential value (often viewed as liabilities)
- increasing complexity of tenure
- tensions between private and communal needs
- competition for use (e.g. car-parking, development)
- lack of necessary skills within social housing providers
- inter-departmental service divisions
- low organisational status of green space (often contracted out)
- complex resourcing models
- over-reliance on external providers for design and management
- absence of relevant regulatory framework
- low aspirations in terms of design and use
- lack of direct link to Decent Homes standard
Some of these issues are generic to the challenges that face the work to improve our parks and public spaces. However, many of them are almost wholly relevant to the spaces owned and managed by social housing providers, which by and large, has other priorities to address.
