Angela Rayner has been branded a “arch-hypocrite” for allowing allotments to be sold off for housing when she campaigned to save the much-loved growing plots in her own constituency. Allotments are small rented plots of land typically owned by local authorities where people enjoy growing their own fruit and vegetables.
Under the Allotment Act 1925, the treasured parcels of land are protected from development or sale, except with ministerial sign-off. But now under Ms Rayner’s tenure several allotments are facing the chop, with one in Storrington, West Sussex, set to be cleared to make way for 78 homes. Two more in Bolsover, Derbyshire, are under threat, as well a site in Padiham, Lancs, and others in East Anglia.
The loss of the community resource seems at odds with the Deputy Prime Minister’s campaigning in her own constituency. After visiting an allotment in Greater Manchester three years ago, Ms Rayner wrote on her website: “Those that work on the allotment say the initiative has also helped them through some tough times and reduced loneliness and isolation in the area.”
Ms Rayner has been urged to push on with a massive house-building programme, but her ambitious plans have come under threat because of a slump in the construction industry.
The selling off of allotments under Labour has even been criticised by former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who wrote in the Telegraph that there was a “joy of digging ground for potatoes”, and he warned “the future of these precious spaces even more perilous”.
Conservative housing spokesman Paul Holmes told the Mail Online: “Ms Rayner has been exposed as an arch-hypocrite, the ultimate Nimby who thinks selling off everyone else’s allotments is fine, just not in her back yard.
“By declaring war on Jeremy Corbyn’s treasured allotments, she has sown the seeds for the next iteration of Labour’s Left-wing civil war.
“Rather than trying to prune her rivals by any means necessary, perhaps she should grow up and focus on what the country really needs to cultivate.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing said sales of allotment plots to make way for housing were lower under Labour than under previous Conservative administrations.
They said: “Councils have been able to sell assets since 2016 and these rules have not changed. They should only do so where it is clearly necessary and offers value for money.
“We know how important allotments are for communities, and that is why strict criteria is in place to protect them, as well as school playing fields.”
