It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I thank the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) for calling this important debate and articulating so clearly the value of our parks estate and the challenges that it faces. The UK's 27,000 public parks are treasured assets enriching communities for over 150 years. They provide opportunities for leisure, relaxation, exercise, connection to nature, community cohesion, physical and mental health and wellbeing, biodiversity, climate change mitigation, civic pride. During the covid pandemic, parks were a lifeline providing breathing space where people could relax, exercise and enjoy the outdoors even in difficult times. The Government are committed to levelling up communities across the country with targeted investments such as the £9 million levelling-up parks fund launched in 2022. Over 90% of funded local authorities reported increased access to green spaces in disadvantaged urban areas. Since 2019, the National Lottery Heritage Fund invested over £36 million in parks and green spaces, awarding over £950 million since 1996 to create and restore more than 900 individual parks. Through community ownership fund, the Government awarded funding of over £500,000 to support five parks and green spaces. Local authorities must have freedom in choosing how to use budgets best serving their local areas and priorities including investing in improving and developing parks. Camden Council and Islington Council agreed a joint parks for health strategy with health-related projects and social prescribing being rolled out across boroughs. Central Government supports local authorities through the future parks accelerator programme funded by the Department, National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Trust in 2019. The green flag awards scheme promotes national standard for parks and green spaces across UK; over 400 green flag awards have been awarded to community-led parks. Getting best outcomes for parks requires communities, health authorities, park sector stakeholders, local and national Government working together. Parks are about history, celebration, memories, culture, and they are the centre of communities key to healthy communities. Over 2,000 green flags were awarded this year demonstrating that parks met highest-quality standard. We must work together to ensure treasured assets are passed on to future generations in best possible condition.