British households should follow the example of Kensington and Chelsea’s private garden squares by clubbing together to make their neighbourhoods greener, the new tree tsar has said.

Sir William Worsley, who will begin his role as England’s “tree champion” next week, has said that neighbours could pool small, regular contributions to help maintain wildlife in their area.

Although he used the private gardens of London’s richest borough as an example, he said there was no reason why the principle could not be rolled out across the country. For example, households could be asked to donate any amount they felt was “reasonable”.

He said: “I’m not talking about this being expensive. If you spread the cost across a lot of people, it becomes relatively inexpensive.”

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