[mumofstig]

Philip, that does seem rather extreme, although I see that the price you've quoted is for a plot with water, and the cost of water during the drought must have been high (now up to £22.50 for one without water supply)
I'd also want to know how they can justify that, though.

[mower man]

We also have a plot increase this year from £20.00  to £30.00  all because our lovely committee want to !!

[Goosegirl]

Never had an allotment, so what do they do with the money and how do they justify the increase?

[Christine]

We are an association run by volunteers on behalf of the town council. We haven't had a price rise but once since about 2016 when the then committee protested loudly but weren't heard - rents went from £40 to £47.50. 2021 we had a rise waved through as the town clerk left to £50. We have half price for pensioners and a set rate for some small plots we have. How the money is spent?
1. Certain amount of insurance for the committee to undertake repairs
2. Membership of the National Allotment Society which we have found invaluable for advice from the legal team and access to the Kings Seeds scheme.
3. Repairs. The last nearly 5 years we have been playing catch up as previous committee had done nowt but let the town council take most of the income and put it into their coffers for other things. At the moment we are allowed to keep all our rental income - which we are cafefully spending on imrovements. We might just have 95 out of 100 plots which are in decent condition by end of this season. Our main problem at the moment is that we are still clearing pigeon crees where the old boys have died and left us with some monumental problems.
4. A small amount goes on paper, printer ink, stamp and such as you can't run an allotment association without some admin.

[Christine]

We are lucky that we don't have to pay for water and we do get boundary repairs done by the council (well they are supposed to do so but it seems a little hard to get this done at present).

[AnneB]

Our Committee met last week to set the rent for the coming year.   We decided to keep the rent the same at £40 a year plus £20 a year for water per full size plot, making a total of £60.   We offer a reduction for those over the age of 60 to rent £20, which with the water makes a total of £40.   We also charge a total of £40 for a half plot.   Each plot gets a free jar of our own honey and this year 2 bags of compost.

Today our local council (Bradford) announced an increase of rent on council run sites from £45.32 for any size of plot plus £22 for water to a new price of rent of £55 plus water remaining at £22, giving a new total of £77.00, up from £67.32. They charge a concession rate of rent £27.50 plus £22 water, giving a new total of £47.50, up from £44.66.   I expect there will be complaints about the level of increase soon.

We have only been self managed since 2019, but managed to reduce the rent to current levels in 2020 and maintain it at that level since.   Our main expenditure is on water, public liability and equipment insurance and maintenance of fences, trees and machinery.  We are still building a contingency fund in the event of a major requirement such as a water leak but also saving up for a composting toilet facility.   A fairly small site with 41 plots, 3 of them half size (the fourth half has our shipping container).

[Aunt Sally]

Don’t forget that under the 1950 Allotments Act, the holders of statutory allotments MUST be given 12 months notice of increased allotment rent.

https://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment-information/allotments-the-law/

[snowdrops]

Don’t forget that under the 1950 Allotments Act, the holders of statutory allotments MUST be given 12 months notice of increased allotment rent.

https://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment-information/allotments-the-law/

Very interesting Aunty, thank you.
On another note but pertinent to Aunty’s post, how do you find out if an allotment site is a Statutory allotment?

[Aunt Sally]

If a site has been acquired or appropriated by a local authority (of any type, from parish to county council) for the specific purpose of being used as allotments, then this site has special protection and is known as a 'statutory allotments' site.

https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/system/files/allotlawandcommgrowing.pdf

[AnneB]

Don’t forget that under the 1950 Allotments Act, the holders of statutory allotments MUST be given 12 months notice of increased allotment rent.

https://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment-information/allotments-the-law/

I don't think that is quite right.  They must give 12 months notice of an end to a tenancy if there is no breach of the tenancy agreement, but there is no such requirement to give notice about a rent increase.  In practice many councils do give 12 months notice, but by no means all.

[Aunt Sally]

It is correct.  Have you read this government document? :

https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/system/files/allotlawandcommgrowing.pdf

Our parish council always gives us one years notice !

[AnneB]

It is correct.  Have you read this government document? :

https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/system/files/allotlawandcommgrowing.pdf

Our parish council always gives us one years notice !

I have looked at the document and I can't find anything in it about giving a 12 month notice of a rent increase. Sorry if I have missed it.  Lots of councils do, but many, including our own Bradford Council, do not.

[Aunt Sally]

I’m afraid many councils ignore the law.

I had one councillor try to tell me that creating a bylaw to ban keeping chickens would over rule the act of Parliament giving the right to allotment tenants to keep them - total nonsense.