Building community from the roots

Introduction

What if I told you there was a way for local authorities to improve health outcomes, foster community cohesion, address food insecurity, and increase trust in local government, all for the low price of just £500? If I’ve got your attention, then let me introduce you to the concept of “Right to Grow,” an initiative supporting residents to create community gardens on unused local land. This relatively new initiative is spreading across the UK faster than English ivy, and with the sunny weather inviting us outside, now is the perfect time to consider whether policies around community gardening can take root in your borough.

Context

Before we dig into community gardening, it’s important to understand the wider health and wellbeing struggles that people in the UK are facing. Healthy life expectancy in the UK has taken a dip over the past decade, falling below the state pension age of 66 in 90% of local areas and below the age of 55 in 10% of local areas. The Health Foundation has cited poor diet and low levels of physical activity as two of the leading causes of preventable death nationally. Poor diet can in part be attributed to the rising cost of living and the increase in food poverty throughout the UK. The latest research by The Food Foundation revealed that as people become food insecure, healthy foods are the first thing to be sacrificed; 40% of food insecure households report cutting back on vegetables.

Mental health, too, is falling across the nation as people become more isolated and report high levels of loneliness. This is especially sharp among young people, and especially young women, 51% of whom report feeling lonely often.

Public gathering spaces, such as youth clubs and community leisure centres, which would otherwise provide opportunities for physical activity and community building, have been closing in recent years and, in many local areas, few alternatives for welcoming and affordable places to socialise exist. Budgets notwithstanding, it takes time to rebuild lost public facilities - so what can be done to foster community in the meantime?

Barriers to action

Imagine walking to your neighbourhood grocer. You pass by the fenced-off vacant lot, the same one that’s been a blight on the neighbourhood for years. Hit with a sudden flash of inspiration, you realise that would be the perfect place to grow vegetables. You get together with a few of your neighbours and bring your request to the council, but you’re met with a lengthy and complex lease agreement process and told you must purchase expensive liability insurance. If that wasn’t enough, you learn that your lease will only hold for a few years, which, in gardening terms, is hardly enough time to establish a functioning food plot. Discouraged, you give up on the idea and instead decide to complain about misused council taxes on your favourite social media platform.

Residents wanting to create community gardens currently face many barriers, not only insurmountable fees for leases and costly liability insurance, but perhaps most importantly, information about available land. Residents eager to put in the work may feel unfairly pitted against local councils. It’s easy to see how Open University found that barriers to community gardening can generate distrust and disengagement with local councils.

The Right to Grow

The Right to Grow is an initiative giving residents the power to cultivate community gardens on unused council-owned land. Each local authority implements the Right to Grow differently, but, broadly speaking, it usually involves publishing maps of unused land, streamlining the process of long-term leases on unused land for gardening, and including community gardening in relevant policy strategies.

And community gardening is relevant to more policy strategies than it might appear at a glance. A systematic review of 120 scientific papers found that fruit and vegetable consumption improved with participation in community gardening while physical activity improved especially for groups who otherwise found exercise difficult, such as the elderly and the disabled. But one of the most common outcomes reported is community cohesion, not surprising since gardening requires cooperation. Groups which have been excluded from other aspects of community life, such as people with mental health issues, disabled people, and refugees, were particularly likely to benefit.

Local governments have a full plate of options when it comes to integrating the Right to Grow with their local plans. Because community gardening has such wide benefits, it can fit comfortably in a health and wellbeing strategy, a green city or climate action strategy, be part of a food strategy or an exercise, sport and leisure goal. Incredible Edible, the Community Interest Group leading the campaign, offers abundant resources for councils to get started, including a draft motion councils can put forward.

According to the Royal Horticulture Society (RHS), 30% of community gardens operate on a budget of less than £500 per year. This makes it not only affordable for local authorities, but for residents themselves.

In 2023, Hull became the first borough in the UK to introduce a Right to Grow motion. Last March, Southwark became the first London borough to introduce a Right to Grow initiative, with Hounslow and Hackney not far behind, followed by Bury in Greater Manchester. Residents in other boroughs, such as Lambeth and Tower Hamlets, are actively campaigning for the Right to Grow.

Public gardening initiatives are sprouting up in other countries as well. In Vienna, for example, Gardens Around the Corner allows residents to apply to green up small patches of public land through a simple and straightforward online form.

I confess that I have a bit of a bias when it comes to this topic as I’m active in three community gardens in my local borough of Tower Hamlets. I’ve seen first-hand how gardening strengthens communities and brings people together. Devolution doesn’t end at local government; real change is created when communities are empowered to help themselves.