A new toolkit to calculate the economic value of urban greenspace is being developed with £1m funding from Innovate UK.

The online toolkit - which is being developed by researchers at the University of Exeter, Vivid Economics and Barton Willmore - will help put a monetary value on protecting, maintaining and creating green spaces.

The work will build upon previous research by Vivid Economics showing London’s public green spaces bring at least £5bn worth of value each year.

Therese Karger-Lerchl, who is co-leading the development of the toolkit at Vivid Economics, said; ‘Once we were able to provide credible estimates for valuing London’s parks, we realised the importance of being able to roll out this idea so that all green infrastructure in urban spaces could be accurately valued.

‘This will help those investing in and maintaining green infrastructure to make informed decisions about how they spend their budgets.’