How green are British front gardens?

Ipsos conducted a survey of 2,067 adults across Great Britain to help the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) understand how common it is for driveways and front gardens to be green areas (including grass, plants or trees) and what benefits people perceive greener streets to bring to themselves and local communities. The survey also captures the key barriers to greening these areas of our homes and considers what types of support might encourage this.

This research has taken place to help inform the RHS’s ‘Greening Grey Britain Campaign’. The campaign aims to reverse the trend to pave over front gardens and to turn more grey spaces into green planted up areas.

Key findings from the survey include:

• 73% of British adults say planted areas along roads and streets would make them feel happier, 59% say they’d feel healthier and 58% say they’d feel calmer.
• 72% agreed that planted areas along roads and streets would make them feel proud of where they lived.
• 45% of those surveyed with grey driveways or front gardens think the space is too small for plants, with 28% of saying they need the space for cars.
• A further 23% of those with grey driveways or front gardens say they either don’t have time, or it’s too hard, to grow and maintain greenery in their front gardens.
• Only 10% of all those surveyed said growing plants in their front gardens was an activity they would like to get involved in.
• Nearly six in ten (57%) people with grey driveways or front gardens said that they would not be encouraged to grow more greenery in their front garden even if there were initiatives such as more available parking on streets or more information about the benefits.

Responding to the survey, RHS Director General, Sue Biggs, says: 

“We have an even bigger challenge ahead than we originally thought and the state of our front gardens begs the question, what happened to our nation of gardeners?  Today over five million front gardens now have no plants growing in them, 7.24 million are nearly totally paved over. We must get the UK’s front gardens blooming for our health and well-being, to improve the environment and to help reduce flooding risks."

• Download the topline (PDF)
• Download the tables (PDF)

Technical note

Ipsos surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,067 British adults aged 15+ face-to-face between 11 March and 10 April 2016. Results have been weighted by age, gender and working status.