Report highlights green jobs potential of ‘Red Wall’

A new report has highlighted the ‘significant potential’ for green jobs in areas like the ‘Red Wall’.

The report by the Green Alliance claims more than 16,000 new jobs can be created through coastal restoration, tree planting and urban green spaces across areas with the greatest employment challenges, particularly in the ‘Red Wall’, with more green jobs across Britain.

The research, conducted by WPI Economics, found that investment and raised ambition in nature restoration could create at least 16,000 new jobs across the 126 British constituencies facing the most significant employment challenges coming out of the pandemic.

Many of these constituencies are to be found in areas often identified as the Red Wall, and include County Durham, Copeland, Wolverhampton and Ashfield.

Improving the quality and quantity of urban parks could create 11,000 jobs in the constituencies with the greatest labour market challenges, which also contain some of the most limited access to green spaces.

The research found further opportunities for creating green jobs across Britain.

Coastal communities with potential for seagrass planting (explained below), such as the Isle of Wight, have a higher proportion of people on furlough and more challenging employment prospects, indicating investment in these jobs could boost nature and the local economy post-pandemic.

Two thirds of the best land for tree planting can be found in constituencies with higher than average labour market challenges, with 112,000 hectares of this land in Red Wall areas.

‘The opportunity is there for the chancellor to create a legacy of new high-quality jobs across Britain,’ said the Green Alliance’s head of green renewal, Sam Alvis.

‘Supporting innovation in these types of green jobs will put nature at the heart of the government’s levelling up agenda and help local communities build back better and greener.’

Dr Darren Moorcroft, the chief executive of the Woodland Trust, added: ‘Projects such as the Northern Forest, led by the Woodland Trust and the Community Forests, show that increasing native tree cover is a key part of the levelling up agenda shaping places people will want to live, visit and invest in. This will help increase employment opportunities as well as leading to happier, healthier communities.

‘It is also clear that tackling the climate and nature crises will require not just planting more trees but planting the right kinds of trees. Investing in UK nurseries to grow the trees that we need to plant in the UK is a too often overlooked aspect of green job creation that requires greater attention.’

Photo Credit – Pixabay