The London Right to Grow
The Right to Grow is a UK-wide movement to unlock access to land for community food growing and greening, turning underused spaces into hubs of wellbeing, resilience, biodiversity and local action.
Right to Grow logo. Credit: Incredible Edible
In London the movement is gathering pace with several active civilian-led campaigns and many councils keen to support. So far three councils who have adopted the Right to Grow (RTG) and it is gaining political traction across the country.
What could a Right to Grow mean for London?
It supports residents and groups to:
- Identify and use public land for growing
- Secure space with fair terms and long-term options
- Build stronger, healthier communities through shared growing, cooking, and learning
- Respond to climate and social challenges with local solutions
- Protect and sustain spaces like community gardens for future generations
Capital Growth is working with Incredible Edible to promote the Right to Grow on public land across London and support councils to adopt the motion. We have ranked it as a key indicator of leadership in the Good Food Local framework and have been helping London councils to integrate the elements of RTG into their green space and food strategies.
What is the Right to Grow?
The Right to Grow motion is addressing one of the key barriers to urban food growing – access to land. It provides clearer routes for residents to access land for growing , turning unloved land into green oases for food and wildlife.
The legislation is there to help councils remove red tape and would require local authorities to maintain a free, accessible map of all public land suitable for community cultivation and make it straight-forward for community groups to secure free leases.
This an opportunity to democratise access to land, build trust and reciprocity between citizen and state and smooth the way for a more collaborative approach to managing public land for public good.
The Right to Grow is gaining political traction across the country, with Southwark Council becoming the first London borough to adopt the policy in 2025, with Hackney and Hounslow councils following suit in 2026.
Find out more
Incredible Edible provide general resources on their website, including the draft motion, case studies and literature on their Right to Grow page
The London Right to Grow campaigners have a Notion site for sharing news and resources, where you can find out more about local RTG groups and upcoming events.
The is a London RTG WhatsApp group - join here
Support for London councils
Are you a London council that wants to explore how RTG could imporve health, wellbneing and biodiversity in your borough. Capital Growth is here to help with advice and signposting. Contact us capitalgrowth@sustainweb.org
Dig into our resources in our RTG SharePoint folder with insights, tempates and more from other councils who are running a RTG
Support our work
Your donation will help communities grow more food in gardens across London.
Capital Growth is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.
