We support the principle that residential developments should have access to the natural environment, including to woodland. • Everyone should have access to nature-rich green space in walking distance from where they live.

We recommend adopting policy standards for residential developments that support access to the natural environment and woodland for informal recreation.

Natural England’s Accessible Natural Green Space Standard recommends that all people should have accessible natural green space:
– Of at least two hectares in size, no more than 300m (five minutes’ walk) from home.
– At least one accessible 20-hectare site within 2km of home.
– One accessible 100-hectare site within 5km of home.
– One accessible 500-hectare site within 10km of home.
– A minimum of one hectare of statutory local nature reserves per 1,000 people.

The Woodland Trust has developed a Woodland Access Standard to complement the Accessible Natural Green Space Standard. This recommends that:
– That no person should live more than 500m from at least one area of accessible woodland of no less than 2ha in size.
– That there should also be at least one area of accessible woodland of no less than 20ha within 4km (8km round trip) of people’s homes.