News story

Bob Neill responds to a letter in the Guardian about the future of allotments

Dear Sirs, The assertions made by Annabel Downs (Letters, 6 May 2011) are inaccurate and misleading. The Government is not and has no plans…

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Dear Sirs,

The assertions made by Annabel Downs (Letters, 6 May 2011) are inaccurate and misleading. The Government is not and has no plans to change the rules requiring councils to provide allotments to local communities. What we are doing is reviewing old and unnecessary duties imposed on councils in order to free them up from Whitehall red tape and, as part of this, we have published a list of duties which included allotments. As the Prime Minister said on Wednesday, “It is extremely important that allotments are made available… it is a great movement, and it has my full support.”

Bob Neill MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government

Published 9 May 2011