Public parks and urban green spaces
As well as providing green oases in urban neighbourhoods and a home for wildlife, parks and green spaces are a vital public resource, benefiting people’s lives, wellbeing and health.
We want to fund projects that connect more people to nature, and help boost biodiversity and nature recovery.
Our National Lottery Heritage Grants programme is open, providing grants from £10,000 to £10m to support heritage projects across the UK.
Our funding could help you to:
- restore and regenerate an historic public park, cemetery or garden which is open to the public
- improve access to and understanding of an historic park or green space
- improve people’s connections to nature
- help to realise the benefits of well-managed and maintained public green space for communities, the economy and public health
- improve habitats and help nature to recover
- build a sense a pride in place through regenerating community green spaces
Key things to read
- our guidance on landscapes and nature projects
- discover case studies and learnings from Future Parks Accelerator
Explore our investment
Find out more about our commitment to urban parks and public green spaces in the UK.
Millions of people living in urban areas lack vital access to nature and green space. Our new partnership programme, Nature Towns and Cities will tackle this by helping local authorities work together with communities to bring nature into every neighbourhood for all to enjoy. Alongside building strong networks, sharing expertise and accreditation, we've announced £15m in funding for urban parks and green spaces.
Future Parks Accelerator (FPA) supported eight local authorities to develop ambitious and sustainable solutions to protect, enhance and put public parks and green urban spaces to greater use.
Discover more about the programme as well as tips and advice on managing green spaces in urban places.
Visit the FPA website for even more resources.
A joint £1million programme between Nesta, The National Lottery Heritage Lottery Fund and Community Fund launched in 2013. It aimed to fund and support parks innovators to develop, implement and spread new approaches to sustaining and making the most of public parks in the UK.
Over 20 innovation projects have now been delivered supporting park managers, community groups and other charities to rethink how urban parks and green spaces might be managed and funded in future.
Read a collection of essays about Rethinking Parks, produced by Nesta following the end of the programme in October 2020. You can also discover a series of insightful project updates and a toolkit created by Nesta, which capture the learning experiences of the projects involved with the programme.
The Space to Thrive report, published January 2020, is a rapid evidence review of the benefits parks and green spaces have for people and communities.
Its key recommendations are:
- Parks should be seen as social as well as physical infrastructure.
- Parks and green spaces should be managed to support health and wellbeing.
- Parks and green spaces should be managed to encourage connections with nature.
Paul Farmer, CEO of mental health charity Mind, reflects on how green spaces can improve wellbeing following the publication of this report.
