# Why Trees, Gardens and Green Spaces Are No Longer Nice-to-Haves

By Fran Barnes — 2026-06-24

Fran Barnes, chief executive of the Horticultural Trades Association:

“As a child, I looked forward to snow days. My annual hope was that school might close because of the weather, and I could watch cartoons and build snowmen. I never imagined that, 40-odd years later, we’d be facing heat days instead.

“This week, many schools are closing, commuters are staying home, and some events are being postponed because temperatures in some parts are likely to reach unsafe levels.

“The future we’ve been talking about for decades isn’t some distant prospect. In many ways, it’s already here.

“Whatever your views on climate policy, we now need to focus on climate adaptation too. If hotter summers and more frequent extreme heat events are becoming part of our reality, we need to prepare for them.

“That means rethinking how we design and develop our towns and cities.

“Trees, parks and green spaces are often treated as nice-to-have amenities. Increasingly, they should be seen as essential infrastructure. They cool urban environments, improve resilience and make places healthier and more comfortable for people to live and work.

“In the Horticultural Trades Association Value of Gardens report (https://hta.org.uk/value-of-gardens), there is clear evidence that green infrastructure reduces air temperatures in our urban environments. Urban and residential areas tend to be hotter than rural areas due to the buildings and solid surfaces absorbing and retaining heat – known as the urban heat island effect. But plants and greenery absorb heat from the sun and cool the air through evapotranspiration; their shade also reduces the amount of heat absorbed by solid surfaces. In these ways, gardens cool urban areas, protecting people from the effects of heatwaves, whilst reducing emissions associated with air conditioning.

“Research by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology found that, on average, domestic gardens, specifically in the London City region, reduce temperatures by 0.24°C. A further study conducted in Manchester found that, in full sun, concrete surface temperatures reached 40°C, whereas grass reached only 23°C. In addition, adding an element of tree shade to these surfaces drastically reduced temperatures: concrete was 12°C cooler and grass was 9°C cooler than if they had been in full sun. As such, the annual value of the urban cooling services provided by the UK’s vegetation was estimated at £430 million in 2020, equivalent to £ 547 million per annum in 2025 prices.

“The challenge is that trees take time. The trees that will help cool our cities in 2056 need to be planted today! And if the Met Office is right in their 2056 predictions on BBC News, this isn’t precautionary… It’s essential.

“Too often, environmentally friendly development is focused on technology alone. Solar panels and heat pumps have an important role to play, but so does nature’s own cooling system.

“The horticulture industry and members of the Horticultural Trades Association stand ready to help create greener, cooler and more resilient places. The question is whether we have the foresight to invest in them now, before today’s red alert becomes tomorrow’s normal summer forecast.”

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