We were recently working on a masterplan for a new settlement, one of the aims of which was that it be ‘landscape led’. This is a term that comes up all the time in our world, either as part of briefs or in the way that schemes are sold. I therefore feel like I should know what it means, but I’m afraid I have no idea, and talking discreetly to other urban designers and landscape architects it seems they don’t either.

This came to mind reading the recent report by the New Economics Foundation exposing the collapse in green space provision in England and Wales. They have put together three datasets to show that the amount of open space in housing development completed since 2000 has declined by a third, resulting in 9 million fewer trips to green space. I can’t help thinking this must be something to do with us not understanding what ‘landscape led’ means.

The report reaches this conclusion by combining ONS data on greenspaces, with data on the average age of housing and a national survey by Natural England on attitudes towards local green space. It shows that the average size of a local park has declined from 8.5 football pitches in the 1930s to 5 football pitches post the year 2000. Over the same period the land area devoted to green space in new development has declined from 13% to 9% with a similar trend for private gardens.

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