Page 18 - The Land Trust Annual Review 2019

Social value
The long term success of our spaces is After analysing the information provided from
important to the reputation of the Land Trust, across our sites in 2018-19 the results showed that
our managing partners and the developers and for every £1 we spend there is an overall economic
landowners we work with. We believe that our and social benefit to society of £7.50. This is a
role goes beyond simply managing green space 100% increase on our figures in 2017-18 and is a
and is about creating communities and places fantastic achievement.
where people want to live, work and play. There are a number of factors that have
contributed to the significant progress over the
In the pages of last year’s annual review we wrote last 12 months and these are driven by the huge
about our Social Value model that we developed amount of activity delivered by our staff and
in partnership with AMION Consulting. This model managing partners on our sites.
allows us to measure our impact by assessing the There has been a 14% rise in the number of
benefits of our green space management against people taking part in health activities on our sites
our five key charitable objectives of: rising from 39,391 to 44,970. This adds social and
economic value for a number of reasons.
Environment and biodiversity Firstly, the positive impact that spending time in
Health and wellbeing well managed green space can have on physical
Education and learning and mental wellbeing is huge and long term this
Economic vitality results in financial savings for the health service.
Community cohesion and volunteering The rise of social prescribing will see this figure
continue to grow over the next decade as decision
18
Land Trust Annual Review 2019
“ There are a number
of factors that have
contributed to the
significant progress over the
last 12 months and these
are driven by the huge
amount of activity delivered
by our staff and managing
partners on our sites.”
makers continue to look at innovative new ways of new businesses to begin operation on our green
to tackle issues such as obesity, diabetes and spaces. This has increased from nine in 2017-18 to
depression, which not only cost the NHS billions 86 in the last year.
of pounds each year, but also the economy with As we take more sites on the financial contribution
millions of working days lost each year to physical the Land Trust makes to the local economy is also
and mental health ailments. significant. When employing managing partners or
Our placekeeping approach, designed to contractors our philosophy is that it is important,
encourage emotional ownership of our green wherever possible, to ensure that we employ local
spaces, has contributed to a 14% increase in the businesses. This creates jobs and employment
number of people enjoying community activities opportunities within the community and also has
on our sites. Building communities in this manner the added benefit of the people we work with
creates social cohesion, which can increase the having local knowledge which is vital when liaising
value of residential properties based near our sites. with communities or our service charge customers.
Visitor numbers continue to rise and for the The number of people benefiting from our
second year in succession we have had over a flagship environmental Green Angels training
million people enjoy spending time on our green programme has more than doubled over the
spaces. These visits make a positive impact on previous 12 months with 77 people taking part in
the economy with increased spending in local at least one of our range of courses in 2018-19.
businesses situated around our sites. Our effective A number of our participants have gone on to
green space management and this consistent rise further education, while others have got back into
in visitor numbers has also encouraged a number employment or set up their own businesses.
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