Space saver

This autumn, watch out for unusual activity at the boarded-up site behind the local shopping centre, or the patch of land suffocated by litter next to your estate. If you see a celebrity being photographed there, or journalists collecting angry soundbites, it will probably be in aid of Waste of Space, a high-profile campaign that aims to put underused patches of land back on the map.

"There's a patch of derelict land at Waterloo, when you get off the Eurostar, and that's typical of the whole country," says Julia Thrift, director of the government's new advisory body on public green spaces, CABE Space. Waste of Space is the body's launch campaign.

Under the guidance of Thrift, who started her career as a journalist, the campaign will use television and radio to invite the public to name and shame examples of environmental blight and the councils and landowners who are to blame. In spring, a follow-up campaign will show how local people can raise the issue, put pressure on a site's owners and get funds to make a change.

The campaign is a scaled-down version of CABE Space's overall programme. The body, part of government design watchdog the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, was set up in May to give a single voice to calls for improvement that often get lost in a no man's land between councils, pressure groups and the private sector. It will disseminate best practice guidance, promote community activity, help train parks managers and offer a panel of specialist advisers to help councils integrate green space strategies into their housing and leisure policies.

However, there are no housing people among the landscape designers, architects, parks managers and environmentalists on the panel of specialists, nor on CABE Space's 10-strong staff. Nor are there any housing-related organisations in its list of "strategic partners", or even pictures of housing in its brochures. So is CABE Space really addressing the housing sector's role in what it's trying to do?

Asked what practical steps housing associations can take to improve the quality of green spaces, Thrift doesn't have a ready answer beyond agreeing that the registered social landlord could designate a specific member of staff. On CABE Space's role in the Thames Gateway, she will say no more than to confirm that it will have one.

But there is hope. Although the panel of specialist advisers will initially be available only to local authorities, its remit could be extended to other providers of green space including housing associations in the future. And CABE Space is supporting the Neighbourhoods Green conference run by the Peabody Trust and Notting Hill Housing Trust in December, which will look at how housing providers can improve green spaces in terms of play opportunities, design and biodiversity.

Mathew Frith, landscape regeneration manager at the Peabody Trust, acknowledges the risk that CABE Space could end up conversing with just the parks, nature and leisure lobbies. But he also believes that it has a decent chance of engaging with the housing world. "I'm keen to work with them to ensure a conduit between them and the housing sector. The design and management of housing green spaces doesn't seem to be an immediate priority, but part of the role of the Neighbourhoods Green conference is to kick-start that activity."

Doing the knowledge
CABE Space will be researching the many social, economic and health benefits of green spaces. "We have increasingly isolated lifestyles, and parks are a chance to meet our neighbours," says Thrift. "A walk through the park can reduce blood pressure, it's an opportunity for children to play and learn, and it adds to the quality of our lives."

To back this up, the body's research unit will work on what Thrift calls "an armoury of facts and figures to show that it's an investment, not a cost". She acknowledges, though, that the armoury will need plenty of fire-power if green space is to be included on section 106 planning gain sites in high-value areas. "Developers' initial response might be to get the best return," she admits. "But a courtyard or garden can push up the value of the surrounding homes and in social housing, it adds to the desirability of an area.

"A lot of people are very focused on quality inside the home, under the decent home standard, but they're missing a trick if they don't think about the public space. You need high-quality green spaces to make communities sustainable."

Greening the pathfinders
In many parts of the country, however, the problem is not lack of space, but converting it from urban wasteland to urban oasis. In the housing market renewal pathfinder areas, each of which has a CABE representative, Thrift says "public spaces may be down the list of priorities, but are key to creating a desirable place to live". CABE Space will encourage the market renewal areas to follow the example of the Milton Keynes Parks Trust, funded by long-term endowment income from a number of Milton Keynes properties.

CABE Space's other projects include developing a set of national standards for the quality of public space, drawing on the Audit Commission's comprehensive performance assessment and the Improvement and Development Agency's beacon council scheme. "We're looking for a more focused way to measure the performance of delivering green spaces," says Thrift.

CABE Space has all the advantages and disadvantages of any new organisation: a blank slate but no track record; a director with relevant skills but a relatively unknown name; a challenge that is simple to spell out but difficult to define. But its greatest asset is probably the first half of its name. CABE has earned a high profile and solid reputation for supporting good design and CABE Space can trade on that as it persuades councils, housing associations and developers to look out of the window.