In England, “78.6% of urban areas is designated as natural rather than built”. Since urban only covers a tenth of the country, this means that the proportion of England’s landscape which is built on is…
Paved garden of a terraced house Scotland and the North-East embrace paving
… 2.27%.
Yes. According to the most detailed analysis ever conducted, almost 98% of England is, in their word, natural.
Elsewhere in the UK, the figure rises to more than 99%. It is clear that only a small fraction of Britain has been concreted over.
There will be quibbles. What about the gardens people have paved? The NEA looked at that, noting how in London an estimated 3,200 hectares of front gardens have been covered in concrete, bricks or gravel.
Paving levels are highest, it was found, in the North-East of England and Scotland, where 47% and 31% of front gardens are more than three-quarters paved. The detail in their analysis is impressive.
Quite simply, the figures suggest Britain’s mental picture of its landscape is far removed from the reality.
Doesn’t surprise me. If you fly into London in the height of summer, you get a very strong impression that you’re flying into a city of trees.
But most of our rural landscape is not ‘natural’. It’s the result of several thousand years of farming.
