Allotments: guidance for local authorities

Ministerial Foreword

Good food can have major impacts on our health, environment and society. It can help reduce dietary-related diseases, mitigate the environmental impact of our food consumption, and also bring communities together.  

When people are involved in growing their own food it enhances these benefits even further – fruit and vegetable consumption often increases, gardening can provide a source of low-impact exercise and offer mental health benefits, and growing spaces can improve biodiversity and reduce the air miles of the food that we eat. 

Allotments and other grow-your-own initiatives undoubtedly help us to deliver these benefits which is why I am delighted to produce this guidance for local authorities. 

This guidance will assist local authorities in delivering on their new functions as set out in the allotments legislative framework and will help them to deliver our aim of extending availability of grow-your-own land. 

I fully expect these new powers will open up the many benefits of allotments to the wider community. 

Mairi Gougeon
Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment
June 2019