Band 6+: Many major cities are facing a housing crisis as they cannot provide enough land for new buildings. Some local governments believe the problem could be solved by reassigning park land for residential development, because this land would be better used for housing. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

The need for sufficient land to build new properties on is a current problem facing many urban areas. Some local governments suggest that this issue can be solved by utilising park land for building residential properties instead. This essay completely disagrees with this statement as I believe that removing natural landscapes in favour of residential development will mean people will spend more time indoors and park habitats and wildlife will be damaged.

Building houses on areas that are used as parks and leisure spaces will negatively impact the amount of time people spend outdoors. This is because, in many large cities there is already a lack of outdoor spaces which people can use for recreational activities and exercise meaning that they will spend a large amount of their free time inside instead, which is often linked to consequences like a rise in obesity and depression. This is a trend seen in a built up area such as central London, where many outdoor spaces are converted into houses in order to deal with the rising populations, many of the residents here complain that the lack of parks contribute to low moods and a lack of motivation to exercise.

Additionally, park lands are a great source of natural habitats and diverse wildlife and by reassigning these areas into houses these consequently get destroyed. The reason behind this, is because the process of building housing not only occupies the space where habitats for many species thrive but also produces a great deal of waste and pollution which negatively impacts the existing animals. I have seen this in my local town, where a nearby park was converted into a set of apartment complexes and this lead to a large reduction in native birds such as robins.

To conclude, local governments in large cities are faced with a housing crisis with an insufficient amount of land. Although they feel that reassignment of park land may be solution to this problem, I completely disagree with this as it will negatively impact the time individuals spend outdoors and natural habitats and wildlife.