People must take steps to further green their gardens

According to professor Diane Pataki, talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, those with greenhouses and city planners need to look more closely at the balance between environmental costs and the benefits of urban greening.

Ms Pataki said there is a great effort to design methods of monitoring greenhouse gas emissions but there are not enough programmes to measure the effectiveness of green spaces in cities currently.

The Royal Horticultural Society’s head of science Dr Roger Williams added: “Urban greening is an important topic for the RHS and we are working with a number of groups across the UK to carry out more research into the benefits.”

Earlier this month, Sutton Council raised concerns about the decreasing amount of green spaces in the city and vowed to try and protect the remaining space