Urban agriculture: Declining opportunity and increasing demand—How observations from London, U.K., can inform effective response, strategy and policy on a wide scale

Abstract

Allotment gardening systems are widely used to provide urban residents with small-scale community agricultural plots. Originating in local food production needs, allotments provide multiple additional benefits and contribute to urban resilience. Despite overwhelming evidence of the diversity of benefits that they offer, allotments are under threat, though the extent of the decline in provision remains largely unknown. London, U.K. serves as a model in which to quantify contemporary provision of, and demand for, allotments in a growing city. This study provides concrete evidence to inform future policy and planning.The data come from multiple sources: previous publications provide baselines, while local authorities and management groups provided current details of allotment sites and their waiting lists; allotments were additionally mapped using GIS to determine area of provision.Allotment sites are being lost in London at an increasing rate, approximately triple that of a decade ago, and the compensatory measure of decreasing individual plot sizes within a site is widely employed to buffer demand. This decline can be largely attributed to increasing land value and pressures coupled with restrictive local authority finances.This decline in provision has coincided with an increase in popularity. We found that the demand for allotments has increased four-fold since 2006. When considering the 55 % of sites for which we obtained sufficient data, provision would need to increase by 77 % in order to address the current length of waiting lists.This study is the first step in aiding evidence-based decision-making in preservation of this vital resource. Ultimately, the results of this study and the tools it employs can inform the future direction of allotment provision strategies and land use-planning in a wide range of urban contexts.