Greening the UK, the HTA led campaign to promote the role of plants and open green spaces has joined Defra's Green Infrastructure Partnership.

The Green Infrastructure Partnership was launched by Environment Minister Richard Benyon in October 2011. The initiative, which runs initially for two years, aims to promote green infrastructure to support ecological networks, healthier communities, better quality of life, climate change adaptation and economic growth.

HTA Policy Manager, Gary Scroby comments, "Greening the UK shares many of the aspirations of the Green Infrastructure Partnership and by becoming more closely aligned we can share learning and best practice. In particular, we are very interested in the work strand which is looking at ways to calculate the added economic value of green infrastructure, and we have joined the relevant steering group which is being led by Natural England. Last year, Greening the UK used the Green Infrastructure Valuation Toolkit to demonstrate the economic value that green assets and landscape improvements can add to a small residential project, and we have already presented those findings to the group."

He adds, "We are also interested in the Local Delivery work stream of the Partnership which will look at how best to implement green infrastructure at the local level. With the decentralisation of power from Whitehall, it is important that local authorities, planners and developers have easy access to the right tools and advice to make informed decisions. Greening the UK's wide database of stakeholders across the country should provide a useful network through which to communicate the Partnership's outcomes."

Greening the UK Chairman and HTA Director of Business Development Tim Briercliffe commented "It remains as important as ever that the case for green planting within new developments and urban areas is made. The science is there to show the difference it makes environmentally, socially and economically and whilst some local authorities have put it into practice many more have yet to embed the concepts of green infrastructure. It needs to become a given and Greening the UK will continue to bang this drum."

For further information about the Green infrastructure Partnership, please visit www.defra.gov.uk/environment/natural/green-infrastructure

For more information about Greening the UK, please visit www.greeningtheuk.org.uk