Topic: The Big A4A Annual Rent Review - 2013 Season

[Unwashed]

It's that time of year again:  BAK has asked me to collate the rents we pay so that we can keep tabs on how the allotment movement is fairing in the tight economic climate of public spending cuts and real-terms cuts in our wages.

Ideally I would like to know how much a 10 pole plot (== 10 rod == 10 perch == 250 square metres == 300 square yards) would cost to rent on your site for this current growing season.

If you know the all-in cost for a 10 pole plot please tell me that, and if you don't know that please tell me how much you pay yourself and the size of your plot.

So please tell me:

how much to rent a 10 pole plot on your site, or if you don't know that, how much you pay and the size of your plot.
include in the cost any separate water charges and any compulsory association fees, but excluding any optional fees.

Please also say if your site is: private, or council, and if it's council please say if the site committee collect rents, do the site maintenance, and pay the water bill.

Great stuff, thanks very much.

[Flighty]

My recent yearly rental charge payable to Harrow Council was £20-80 for a half plot.  That's £4-26 per pole, concession of £2-13 per pole and water charge (no concession) £2-13 per pole.
Surprisingly it's the same amount as charged last year.

[manicscousers]

still 22 p per square metre but we have a 10.00 per person per year insurance/ NSALG charge now.
Private and all the sites are a different size 

[daveylamp993]

Manicscousers . . you should get your site to join the allotments and gardens council uk,they are much better than N.S.A.L.G and have a very good insurance scheme,discounted seeds,seeds potatoes etc,if you want the contact number please send me a PM on here and i will glady send it too you.

[Bill Door]

£50 for 10 poles.  We have been told that the cost is going up to £60 for 10 poles in October.

Bill

[manicscousers]

Manicscousers . . you should get your site to join the allotments and gardens council uk,they are much better than N.S.A.L.G and have a very good insurance scheme,discounted seeds,seeds potatoes etc,if you want the contact number please send me a PM on here and i will glady send it too you.

Thanks but we're ok for this year and will be going with RHS insurance next year 

[bluecar]

Hello Unwashed.

£14.00 per 10 poles inclusive of water. Additional compulsory £3.00 Nat Assoc membership inclusive of insurance. Council owned but total self management.

It will be interesting to see a year on year comparison.

Thank you for yet again taking on this task.

Regards

Bluecar

[Unwashed]

My recent yearly rental charge payable to Harrow Council was £20-80 for a half plot.  That's £4-26 per pole, concession of £2-13 per pole and water charge (no concession) £2-13 per pole.
Surprisingly it's the same amount as charged last year.

Hi Flighty, thanks for that.  In the finished table I'll list your site without the concession because I want to compares a standard all-int 10 pole rent.

Can you say please if the site committee collects rents, does the site maintenance, and pays the water bill.  I'd like to collect this info to see if there's any correlation of cost with level of self-management.  Thanks.

[Unwashed]

Manicscousers . . you should get your site to join the allotments and gardens council uk,they are much better than N.S.A.L.G and have a very good insurance scheme,discounted seeds,seeds potatoes etc,if you want the contact number please send me a PM on here and i will glady send it too you.

Hi Daveylamp, can you tell us your plot rent?

[Unwashed]

£50 for 10 poles.  We have been told that the cost is going up to £60 for 10 poles in October.

Hi Bill Door

Can you say please if you're council or private and whether the site committee collects rents, does the site maintenance, and pays the water bill.  I'd like to collect this info to see if there's any correlation of cost with level of self-management.  Thanks.

[squeezyjohn]

My allotments are private I think (owned by St. John's College Oxford and administered by a single allotment holder who lives nearest).  There is no water supply on the site - just collect what comes out of the sky!

I have a half-plot which is about 5 poles - the plots seem to be only roughly 10 poles and vary slightly.

My rent is £15 per year plus £5 for the key (returnable) - I don't know if the whole plots pay £30 or whether it's just £15 per person.  I will ask when I'm next up there.

Cheers

Squeezy

[cornykev]

Council site
£9.50 per pole + water £1.35 per pole
My 6 pole = £65.10
10  pole = £108.50
Just paid this week.   

[Squash64]

201 - 400 sq.yds. £75 (£37.50 for over 60s)

Council owned, self-managed.  We collect the rent and keep 60%.

Rent includes water charge, but not Association fee of £5 per year.

Currently, contractors do site maintenance of grass and shrubbery but this will change due to reorganisation of the Allotments Dept.  We are responsible for maintaining buildings, the Council for underground pipes.

[BAK]

Sunningdale ... we only have one 10 pole plot now. The rent for it is £30 (up from £28 last year). Plots vary in size with the average being around 5 poles (rent £15 up from £14 last year).

This is a parish council-run site. The rent includes water which the council pays for. There is no association or anything else that requires a fee. So no compulsory or optional payments.

Council collects the rent and does some of the site maintenance although the majority is done by plot holders.

Thanks for doing this Unwashed.

[goodlife]

Private site, no running water provided but members do have  use of communal wells. We currently pay £6 per year (membership fee), regardless of the size of the plot and that £6 include insurance.
There is one off share purchase price when allotment is been taken over for the members (price depend of the size of the plot) and the same value (or updated value in later date) is returned back when the plot holder is giving up his shares.
It cost me £25 to purchase share for 20 pole size plot 'some years ago'..though we are in process of updating the share values.
Any new members joining from this year are having to pay new share value for the plots, what is about double for the old one.

[Bill Door]

it is Council run and includes everything.

Admittedly the council don't do much on the site.

On another note we have a few plots that are not cultivated well but nothing seems to be done.

Not sure of the waiting list but there are a few plots empty now.

Bill

[Unwashed]

Thanks all - please keep the data coming.

Not enough samples yet for a clear picture, but looking interesting already:

average £4.45/pole
average council £5.74/pole
average private £2.53/pole
average council-admin £6.31/pole
average self-admin £3.22/pole
average council-maintained £7.44/pole
average self-maintained £2.47/pole

[Nigel B]

Hi Unwashed.

10m * 30m plot (10 poles or thereabouts) basic rent £25. No raise since last year.
Water no charge yet.

The council own it and have appointed a committee to run it. The town clerk sends out the reminders and payments are made to the council although there is supposed to be a treasurer. (shrug)


Site maintainence is yet to happen. I strim around my own plot as it seems to be everyone for themselves so far.

(These fools are renting plots out to non-residents too)

[handsfull]

I have a "full plot" which I think is just under 10 rods. I paid £30 for the plot (half plots are £20), £7 to join the Allotment Association, and £10 deposit for the key. The site is Council Leased (it's in a neighbouring borough) and non-Council managed. There are communal water tanks dotted around. Maintenance is carried out by volunteers every Sunday 10-12pm. I think the site is in pretty good shape.

Hope that helps! Very interesting to compare. By the way I think that the cost for plots in the site opposite ours, which is run by a different Council, is £90, but I don't have any other details. 

[macmac]

:We are council owned,self-managed. Our plots are measured front to back linear measure only.                    $1 per metre ( sorry no pound sign on this flippin'kindle ) we have two plots one is 26 metres and the other is 28 meters strange but they seem to be the same length but one is a little wider.