Whilst the quality of the built-up environment of inner cities has received and is receiving considerable attention from politicians, architects, planners, and sociologists, the quality of the green environment has been and is being widely ignored.

The need for a quasi-natural environment is generally alien to urban thinking, where the emphasis has been, and still is, concentrated on the creation of highly artificial, formal and over-managed landscapes.

It is argued that the assumption that people only require a good social and physical environment is wrong, and that it is not sufficient just to supply houses, employment, transport, and shops purveying food and other prerequisites of life. Although to some extent this is appreciated in new towns, it has not penetrated the thinking in established urban areas.