Allotment Rent - Breathing Space?

• Edinburgh allotment holders have experienced double digit rent inflation for nine successive years. (from £30 to £100)

• Our Allotment Association (FEDAGA) arranged for this on behalf of their members.

• The Council then proposed to triple the rent  to £300 as part of this years financing round.

• 99 objections were received by the Council and an online petition was "signed" by over 2,000 people.

• The Council anounced recently that the proposed increase is to be dropped.(HOORAY)

Here a personal "thank you" from me to those of you who I know assisted the Edinburgh allotment community through the online petition and raising awareness of the issue more widely.




On examination of the Council's consultation report it seems that:

3.26 FEDAGA contributed to the consultation and made a number of suggestions for ways the Council could raise additional revenues through allotments. All of these will be passed to the service, but examples included:

• A fee for being registered on the waiting list – given that there is a multi-year waiting list for allotments and an administrative cost of maintaining the waiting list;

• A joining fee for new allotment holders;

• A deposit for new allotments and for keys to allotment sites – refundable when allotments and keys are returned to the Council;

• Use of environmental wardens to issue fines for allotments which are not appropriately maintained;

• Providing only materials and land for new and redeveloped allotment sites, requiring those who want an allotment to provide the labour; and

• Recruitment of volunteers to manage administrative tasks for the allotments service.


So any idea that FEDAGA have woken up to their folly is gone.  They turned on their membership many years ago and it seems the habit of identifying their interest with that of the Council is a habit they can't shake off .  This is not fair on the current or prospective membership.

 

Edinburgh Allotment Rents - Doing the Maths

 By law City of Edinburgh Council is allowed to set allotment rents at a "fair rent for the purpose" Allotments (Scotland) Act 1950

So how does the current rate of £100 per annum per allotment compare with the Scottish average for agricultural land?

The following link is to the Scottish Government. As they say: "The figures released today were produced by independent statistical staff, free from any political interference, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics."

Scottish Government Statistics

It states that the average rent for agricultural land was £38 per hectare in 2013.

60 standard Edinburgh allotments (of 60ft by 30ft each)  make up one hectare (107,639 square feet).

So the Council is charging Edinburgh Allotment holders at a rate of £6,000 per hectare.  That's a lot more than £38

The proposal to triple the rent will make it even more unreasonable!

Should I Laugh or Cry?

Anyone who remembers my previous Mal's Allotment blog  will know about the battle I waged against Edinburgh Council and our Edinburgh allotment association FEDAGA.  What at first sight was a council attack on allotment holders turned out to be a plan hatched by the allotment association itself.  The committeee representing over 1000 Edinburgh allotmenteers argued that if they volunteered rent increases on behalf of the members then City of Edinburgh Council would be "shamed" into providing more allotments. So they pushed for rents to be raised from £30 a decade ago to £100  this year, claiming (correctly) that this removed any subsidy by the Council.  Even the 50% concession given to those on benefit or of pensionable age is now covered by rents paid by those paying the full whack. Rent inflation has been in excess of  10% every year for a decade.

So how many more plots have we got?  None.

By contrast Glasgow who had the same rent but have tracked the RPI now charges £34.50 per annum for a full plot. And guess what, they got Commonwealth Games funding for hundreds of new plots!!

To add injury to insult, Edinburgh Council has cottoned on to the supplicant Allotment Association and has now suggested raising rents from £100 to £300 per year!  They just want the money!

Rather late FEDAGA has cottoned on to the error of it's ways and is now appealing to the membership to support it in campaigning for a rent freeze!!!!

Should I laugh or cry?

Links:

fedaga newsletter

2012 Newspaper Article

One of Many Green Tax Posts from Mal's Allotment