Many people will now be aware of the rental increases for allotment tenants being proposed in Brighton & Hove City Council’s budget for 2012-13. The increases stem from the removal of a subsidy the council has previously paid toward the running of the allotment service. This subsidy of £61,500 a year is the difference between the income the council collect from allotment rents and the cost of the allotment service to run. Read more information about the proposed increases here, from the Brighton & Hove Allotment Federation newsletter.

Or read more for the Food Partnership's statement on the proposed increases.

The Food Partnership works for a healthier, more sustainable food system for the city. Through the Harvest project we encourage and support residents to grow their own and represent 100 community food projects across the city.

We acknowledge that these are very difficult times financially for the Council and there is a need to reduce costs or increase revenues across the board. To this end we would like to see a long term plan for the sustainability of the allotment service. For example, could improvements be made and money be saved in other ways such as by changing the way waste and water are handled on allotments, and providing a more efficient system for allotment holders to pay their rent (e.g. via direct debit).

We recognise that steep increases in allotment rent may exclude some people from the opportunity to continue allotment gardening or to take on plots in the future.  If you feel that this would be the case for you, or someone you know or work with, please get in touch with either your site rep or The Allotment Federation whose role it is to represent individual plot holders on these issues: www.bhaf.org.uk. You could also raise concerns with the Councillor for allotments, Sven Rufus:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We would like there to be further time given to better understand the impact of the removal of the subsidy on individual plot holders and how to implement any increases to rents in ways that do not further marginalize people who are already struggling with bills.

In addition to individual plot holders, there are 38 community allotment plots in Brighton & Hove. In our remit of supporting growing projects we have responded to the Council’s budget proposals on the removal of the allotment subsidy and asked for consideration of the position of community groups with allotment plots. We will let community plots know when we have a response to this.

If you are involved in a community allotment and have not given us your feedback, please do get in touch – your views are really important to us.