Parks and Green Spaces

With thousand-acre parklands and access to some of the most scenic National Trust lands in the country, living in the West Midlands lets you indulge your outdoors side.

Whether you are a visitor or a resident, the West Midlands is a fantastic gateway to both the wider Midlands region (hello the glorious hills and valleys of Shropshire, Malvern, The Peak District and The Cotswolds and the historic counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire and Leicestershire), the rest of the UK, and the rest of the world.

You don’t necessarily have to travel to find green spaces to appreciate. In the West Midlands, we are trying to protect and incorporate nature through the way we approach housing.

Millions has been invested to reclaim, rebuild and repurpose existing sites, to make them into new, low-carbon, good-for-the-planet and community-centred residencies.

Many of these regenerated areas come with green space, parks and waterways as standard. They have been designed to allow for car-free accessibility and high-quality ‘15-minute’ compact living. Our spaces are less cramped than you’d find in London, as our population density per square kilometre is 92% lower.

This is all part of our commitment to becoming a net zero region by 2041. We’re at the forefront of a Green Industrial Revolution; championing clean and inclusive growth and delivering the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.

In 2019 we also declared a climate emergency which led to this ambitious zero-carbon target.

This was followed in March 2021 by the publication of a comprehensive five-year action plan setting out our priorities for decarbonising the region, and our aim to become a global trailblazer at the heart of a global Green Industrial Revolution.

In fact, low carbon industries now represent the area’s fastest-growing sector generating £12bn p.a.

Birmingham is soon to be home to Western Europe’s largest hydrogen bus fleet. With 20 hydrogen buses in operation already, Transport for West Midlands secured £30m funding from the Department for Transport for a further 124 new, environmentally friendly hydrogen-fuelled buses. Plus, Coventry is scheduled to be the first UK city with an all-electric bus fleet.

But even without such formal policies and frameworks, the people, businesses and communities of the West Midlands have always looked out for each other.

This is all for the principle of protecting the planet, preserving our green parklands, and striving for a cleaner future.

The region is the country’s leading centre for advanced manufacturing, responsible for a third of all British-made cars and one in four engines. Despite its long-standing manufacturing heritage, the region is firmly positioning itself as the forefront of the UK’s Green Industrial Revolution, with low carbon industries now representing its fastest growing sector generating £12bn p.a with 5,100 low carbon businesses employing a 94,000 strong workforce.

The West Midland’s gorgeous countryside not only allows weekend tourists to indulge in outdoor activities as part of a great day out, but provides all the sun, open air and nature needed for all the people who call our cities home.

Of course, the surrounding area is peppered with hundreds of friendly rural villages and welcoming market towns, many of which can be traced back to the 11th century Domesday Book. And, as in our cities, having lower priced properties means living your best-ever country life here is much more affordable when compared to many other UK regions.