Case study: Shared Assets (Green New Deal)

Shared Assets is a ‘think and do tank’ working to create a socially just future through practical projects that build new relationships between people and land. The ‘Supporting fringe farming’ project involved the design of a support service for landowners who wish to enable the development of farms and market gardens on their land in London. It also enabled the development of a business case to demonstrate the financial value of urban farming in creating green jobs, green public spaces, and community-building through the provision of good quality, locally grown and culturally appropriate food.

The project team is aiming to engage London authorities through a series of one-to-one meetings and to promote the report and business case through the Capital Growth network and through the national Fringe Farming project. The latter is working to support peri-urban farming in Bristol, Sheffield, Cardiff and Glasgow. The partners will be seeking further funding to pilot the support service with three further London authorities.

The programme gave us an opportunity to work with some great partners to try and bring together a range of different types of expertise. The cross-disciplinary nature of the programme was very important to us. One of the things that the funding has enabled us to do is design a service for public and institutional landowners and to test that with local authority officers and the people who might be the users of that service. The service design aspect has been important for us.

Mark Walton, Shared Assets Founder