Residents can claim unused council land to grow food under new pilot

Groups of Hackney residents can apply to take over unused council land and turn it into community growing space, under a pilot project launched by the Town Hall this week.

The Right to Grow scheme allows groups of five or more — including informal ones, such as neighbours — to claim plots for fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Eligible sites include land around council buildings, roadside verges and vacant green spaces, though not the borough’s parks. Groups must get the council’s permission before planting, so officers can assess whether a site is suitable.

Up to 10 applications will be approved in the first phase, with further rounds to follow. Applying is free, but groups will have to meet the costs of building and maintaining their gardens themselves.

The pilot forms part of the Mayor Zoë Garbett’s Who Owns Hackney campaign, an audit of land use and ownership in the borough intended to free up more space for community use.

Cllr Jacob Cable, cabinet member for climate, clean air, energy and transport, said the scheme was “a huge step forward in making more land available for community use”, adding that it would help residents “grow food, connect with their neighbours and have more of a stake in where they live”.

The council says it already supports more than 50 community gardening and food growing groups on its housing estates.

The launch comes amid a long-standing squeeze on allotment space in the borough.

The Hackney Allotment Society, which manages nine sites — four in E5, four in N16 and one in E8 — closed its waiting list for 15 years after 300 people were found to be queuing for 150 plots in 2008.

The list reopened in February 2024, with space for 100 names, after the number of people waiting fell to 17. Plot-holders rarely give them up, and Hackney’s rents are the cheapest in London at £31 a year.

Julia Rockcliffe, chair of the Allotment Society, told the Citizen in 2023 that allotments were “scarce in London, and a lot of people don’t have gardens”, describing them as “a green oasis in the middle of everything”.

Hackney’s scheme joins a wider Right to Grow movement backed by campaign groups including Hackney Right to Grow and Incredible Edible. Hackney Right to Grow and Capital Growth can advise applicant groups on finding sites, equipment and training.

Groups wishing to apply should send details of their proposed site, their growing plans and who will maintain the space to landwaterair@hackney.gov.uk.