Defra’s new Land Use Framework supports a Right to Grow

Earlier this year Incredible Edible met with Defra to talk about the purpose and vision behind our Right to Grow campaign. This week, Defra’s new Land Use Framework – the first of its kind – was published and it supports our calls for councils to adopt a Right to Grow to help increase community growing projects for food and nature.

The Land Use Framework for England sets out how we can use our land more effectively, stating that changes are needed to increase the resilience of our homes, communities, infrastructure, and food systems, while speeding up development and restoring nature. It asserts that a thriving natural environment and resilience to a changing climate are the foundations of our economy and essential for food security and the vision it sets out uses the most advanced spatial analysis ever undertaken in this England.

The Framework (page 45) commits to “Support making under-used land available for food growing and nature recovery where appropriate, working with initiatives like Right to Grow […] by: Clarifying with guidance, such as that for the public authority Biodiversity Duty, that authorities should consider awarding management of land to communities for food growing or nature recovery, and exploring whether further guidance would improve confidence in doing this. [And] exploring how existing mapping tools and more publicly accessible land ownership data could be used to help local authorities and communities identify under-used land for these purposes.”

Incredible Edible has been calling for, and supporting councils to implement, a Right to Grow since 2022 and there are now Right to Grow policies being implemented, developed and explored in councils all across the UK.

Defra has, having carried out its own analysis, taken up in support of Incredible Edible’s position that changing public land access policies for local communities is a critical tool for delivering a boost in community growing projects for food and nature. The inclusion of the Right to Grow in this new framework will help to empower all those working so hard at community level, and within local councils, to secure more and more Right to Grow policies.

Pam Warhurst chair of of Incredible Edible said:

‘It is just brilliant to see the Government support our campaign for a right to grow.  It is a real endorsement of how the incredible edible model can create healthy food and more connected lives.  This offers real encouragement to communities to crack on and get growing and a nudge to local authorities to do everything they can to support community action’.