Allotments 4 All

We've done an A4A allotment rent survey for the last four years, and it's interesting enough, but it doesn't produce a particularly useful result because the sites that we sample change each year and that creates much more variation in the measure than any underlying change in price.

I think the movement could do with an Allotment Rent Index, much like the Consumer Price Index, which is directly comparable from year to year and reflects the cost of a standard plot on a typical allotment site.  Increases in the ARI would be a direct measure of the increased cost of allotmenteering, and the index would then be a useful yardstick for assessing any proposed prices increases.

All that's necessary is to agree a definition of the standard plot and the basket of sites that we'd sample each year (I'm guessing something like 50 would be nice) for the price of that standard plot, and we're good to go.

Thoughts?

Unwashed.

It is conceptually a good idea but the devil will be in the detail, as usual. It is not straightforward as any two given sites invariably seem to do things slightly differently which may make it a bit problematic in assessing "value" in any particular area.

However, I am happy to give it a try and am prepared to help if I can.

Since the membership here changes from year to year, it is bound to vary the result.  Not clear how you can prevent that.

Quote from: Digeroo on April 27, 2013, 06:46:43
Since the membership here changes from year to year, it is bound to vary the result.  Not clear how you can prevent that.

Rather than asking the members to tell us their rents which produces a rather variable result, the idea is to standardize on a set of sites, and the Allotment Price Index will be the average cost of a standard plot across those sites - maybe something like 50 - 100 sites.  It'll be the same sites each year and we'll ask for the cost of the same standard plot each year.  Changes in the index price will reflect trends in allotment pricing and level of service, and it'll be a useful yardstick to measure the value for money of any proposed rent increase locally.

Unwashed

I fully support the principle you suggest. Many of us have experienced Council's telling sites that other areas charge more whilst cherry picking the most expensive examples. So any data set that reliably informs individuals and associations what others are being charged on an annual basis has got to be good for the wider movement.

You can count me in to supply details for the various costs for LB Merton - now where did I put the bill and rent rise from last October?........

OC

I guess the first thing is to make the definitive list of allotment sites.  We want the list to be as representative as possible, so I suggest we try to identify one allotment site from each of the parliamentary constituencies.  The strength of this is that the constituencies are home to broadly equal numbers of people so it would give us a consistent representation across the whole country.

The down-side is that there are 650 constituencies so that's a lot of sites to sample, but if we can create a network of like 25 volunteers who are each willing to get the data for 20-30 sites covering a couple of counties say, then it's not too onerous.

What do we think?