Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the Ordnance Survey's estimate is of the total area given over to domestic gardens in each local authority in England and Wales.

Ordnance Survey estimates the total area given over to domestic gardens (including estate/national trust/heritage gardens) of any size in each local authority in England and Wales is 3,592.96 km2 (359,296.22 hectares). A breakdown for each authority can be viewed in the attached spreadsheet (1).

In addition, Ordnance Survey have looked at the distribution of these garden areas in England and Wales to compare the spread of area ranges to the number of residential properties. This was compared with average garden sizes for new build and large residential houses to get an upper limit for garden area to use for more standard domestic gardens. From this data set Ordnance Survey estimates the total area given to domestic gardens which are below 200m2 in each local authority in England and Wales is 1,301.54 km2 (130,154.27 hectares). A breakdown for each authority can be viewed in the attached spreadsheet (2).