What do the long waiting lists for allotments tell us about housing demand?

This matters particularly when you’re living in a small flat with no outdoor space of your own. Having somewhere to go outdoors during the day isn’t a luxury; it’s essential for well-being. Allotments can fill that gap in ways that benefit everyone – whether residents work shifts, care for children or have retired.

The cost of living adds urgency to this. Social housing residents feel rising food costs more acutely than most. While individual allotment production may seem modest, over the course of a growing season, it can add up to genuine financial relief.

Beyond the immediate savings, growing food locally rather than buying produce shipped from abroad delivers double benefits for household budgets and the environmental goals that are becoming crucial to planning policy.

“Having somewhere to go outdoors during the day isn’t a luxury; it’s become essential for well-being”

What makes allotments particularly valuable, though, is how they function as social infrastructure. This is particularly important on bigger mixed-tenure estates where residents can easily end up cut off from each other. Residents meet regularly, relationships form naturally and, crucially, these connections cross tenure boundaries in ways that strengthen communities.

I’ve seen this work across different developments, with families teaching children about growing food and understanding seasons, while isolated older residents gain equally important routine, purpose and regular social contact. Given the demographics in social housing, this isn’t a minor consideration, it’s fundamental to creating places where people can thrive.

Research has repeatedly shown that gardening is good for mental health. For residents juggling low incomes, shaky employment or tough personal situations, allotments offer support that works alongside other help they’re getting. While it won’t solve everything, the difference it makes to quality of life is real and measurable.

However, none of this means allotments are straightforward to deliver. The land they occupy could accommodate additional units, which matters when housing need is acute. Balancing allotment provision against other community needs requires careful thought, particularly when budgets are tight and every decision has a trade-off.

The case for allotments has strengthened, though. Housing associations and councils are increasingly treating them as must-haves – not extras. Given the sustained demand, they need proper consideration when planning new estates or regeneration work.

Maintenance does need careful thought, though. You need clear accountability in management arrangements and funding that’ll last. On social housing estates, allotments usually get folded into the overall estate management, with housing providers taking clear responsibility for maintenance and allocating plots. Getting this right from the outset prevents deterioration, which would undermine the whole community benefit case.

For housing associations and local authorities, the question isn’t whether allotments provide value to residents – the evidence suggests they clearly do. The real question is how to secure and maintain them effectively within constrained budgets and competing priorities.

“Residents meet regularly, relationships form naturally and, crucially, these connections cross tenure boundaries in ways that strengthen communities”

This requires establishing management responsibilities from the outset. Allotments need to be built into estate management plans rather than treated as afterthoughts. Funding for upkeep needs to be identified and secured, and plot allocation processes need to be fair and transparent. None of this is particularly complicated, but it does need planning and commitment.

Current government housing targets rightly include substantial social and affordable housing provision. Meeting those numbers while creating genuinely sustainable communities means thinking beyond units on paper. Developments that technically meet housing needs but lack adequate community infrastructure simply store up problems for years ahead.

Housing providers that treat allotments as integral community infrastructure will create estates where residents genuinely want to live. When the housing system faces unprecedented pressure to deliver quantity, the quality of community infrastructure matters considerably.

Allotments represent one component of that infrastructure which addresses multiple residents’ needs simultaneously, and sustained demand suggests they warrant serious consideration.

Tim Foreman, land and new homes managing director, LRG