Average wait for allotment grows to three years – and 12 in London

THE search for a good life has become more of a battle, with waiting lists for council allotments stretching to an average of three years.

But in one corner of Wales gardeners may be able to walk onto a plot with relative ease.

Torfaen, north of Newport, has the shortest waiting list for council allotments in the country, with applicants waiting an average of just one month.

That compares to 12 years in Islington, in north London, the most indemand location for an allotment.

Requests for allotments have risen significantly in recent years, bolstered by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. The number available has dwindled by 65 per cent in urban areas over the past 50 years.

Nicola Barker from the Royal Horticultural Society said there was particular rising demand from younger people who are more likely to have less outdoor space. “It’s not just over 50s that want them, it’s families and there is a definite increasing demand from a younger demographic,” she said.

The result is that waiting lists for council plots stretch to an average of three years across the country.

London has the highest demand, with the average waiting time of nearly six years across 14 districts in the capital. Wandsworth in south-west London has the second longest waiting list of 11 years.

Meanwhile in Torfaen, a relative abundance of plots – more than 1,000, with just 127 people on the list, mean a short wait of just one month.

There are a total of 111,566 people on waiting lists for one of the 120,000 council plots across the country. Nearly 90 per cent of councils have noticed an increase in demand for allotment plots in recent years, according to a survey last year by the Association for Public Service Excellence.

The RHS has also seen a booming trend in gardeners wanting to grow their own fruit and vegetables in the last year, as supermarkets face shortages, with seed sales rising 20 per cent in February compared to the previous year.

Ms Barker said: “The benefits are being able to know where their food is coming from.

“There’s a lot of interest in organic gardening and knowing what’s been used on your food. It makes people feel a bit empowered. They can know where what they eat has come from, know what they’ve put on it.

“And also there’s just general enjoyment. People that have allotments tend to live longer.”

Councils have begun splitting up plots in recent years, and private companies are leasing space to gardeners.