Promoting urban greening: Valuing the development of green infrastructure investments in the urban core of Manchester, UK

The attribution of economic value to landscape resources is fraught with technical and methodological difficulties. Little is mandated in UK planning policy explaining how economic value should be established. As a result landscape resources have been undervalued, underfunded and marginalised in favour of larger grey infrastructure development. The UK NEA however outlined for the first time a national scale economic evaluation of environmental resources. The Valuing Attractive Landscapes in the Urban Economy (VALUE) Interreg IVB project examined this issue by establishing a toolkit of economic evaluation methodologies for green investments across North-West Europe. Focussing on the returns that investments in green infrastructure can deliver to cities and city-regions, the VALUE project identified economic values that can be used to influence future policy-making. This paper presents an analysis of VALUE street tree investments in Manchester, UK. Using a contingent valuation survey preferences for green investments and associated willingness to pay (WTP) for them were generated. Analysis suggests that willingness to pay is directly related to the size and greenness of the proposed investment and participant perceptions of added value. 75% of respondents were WTP for investments in green infrastructure. Analysis indicates increased WTP and a marked preference for larger and physically greener investments. Payment values ranged from £1.46 to 2.33, a 59.5% variance, between the preferred investment option and the status quo. The paper concludes that although green investments vary in size and function, respondents consider the specific and wider value of green infrastructure resources when asked how much they willing to pay to fund and maintain such investments.