The government must spend more on promoting the UK's green spaces, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's select committee has warned.
The select committee published its report on Wednesday as the government gave more detail on how it would spend the £89m "liveability fund" announced in the Communities Plan.

The committee welcomed the extra cash pledged in the plan, but said it was nowhere near enough to address the long-term decline in funding, for which at least an extra £500m would be needed. The report found there had been an underspend of £1.3bn in the past 20 years.

In particular, it said: "Small pots of money distributed among a wide range of organisations can only make a limited impact on funding needs. Bidding for funds can divert valuable staff resources and skew priorities away from what an area needs."

In addition, it criticised the "severe" lack of revenue funding in the government allocation.

Of the £89m fund, £12m will be revenue funding – continuing funding to allow councils to pay wages and continuing costs, as opposed to actual project spending – and £79m capital funding.

However, an ODPM spokeswoman said the further detail on the £89m fund answered many of the concerns of the committee report.

The government will split the money between 27 projects selected by the nine regional government offices.

This means each project will stand a chance of getting a sizeable amount of government money. It has also streamlined the procurement process, with applications to be made by local councils via a two-page form available on the ODPM website.

The select committee also criticised the remit of CABE Space, the new unit of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment set up to look at urban public space. It said CABE Space should broaden its scope to the design and management of public space in two years' time.

Edward Hobson, deputy director of CABE Space, agreed that the remit should evolve.

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