Community food growing campaigning group Hackney Right to Grow welcome the passing of a Right to Grow motion at the Hackney Full Council meeting on Wednesday 4th March 2026 and thank especially the proposer Cllr Lynne Troughton, seconder Cllr Gilbert Smyth and Cllr Sarah Young for their support through the whole process. We also thank the other Cllrs from Labour, The Independent Socialist Group and the Green Party who all spoke passionately in favour of the motion and about how important it is for Hackney residents to have access to food growing space.
The preamble of the motions states “Everyone in Hackney should have access to enough fresh food to feed themselves and their families well and this is all the more challenging during the cost of living crisis. The right to grow will provide a renewed focus on the importance of providing affordable healthy food and sustainable methods of producing the food we eat” and resolves to “Adopt the principle of “right to grow” on council-owned land that is
considered suitable in agreement with the Council”
The Right to Grow means there is right or at least a presumption that unused and under-used land can be used for growing food (The Right to Grow motion Hackney has adopted comes from, with adaptions, the national Right to Grow movement, launched by Incredible Edible in 2022 ). Hackney communities have some of the least access to growing space in Britain with 10s of 1000s living in flats, with no access to anywhere to grow, and at the same time some of the highest levels of food poverty, so this is massively needed. Hackney Council has been great in supporting food growing on their housing estates but there are an incredible number, and area, of un- and under-used land in Hackney that could be used for growing food. Urban community food growing has massive benefits not just in getting good healthy food into the mouths of those who most need it, so mitigating food poverty and helping with social justice, and in increasing food resilience come future crises, but also in increasing community engagement, with helping with people’s physical and mental health, and directly confronting climate change by reducing reliance on carbon intensive food production, and providing significant benefits for biodiversity, not only in creating biodiversity hot spots in urban areas, but more importantly by reducing our consumption of food growing in biodiversity destructive modern agriculture.
Hackney Right to Grow also want to thank Pam Warhurst for starting this whole process and being our inspiration, and the national Right to Grow / Incredible Edible campaign and Sustain / Capital Growth for their support.
Glyn Harries, one of the Hackney Right to Grow group co-ordinators said “It’s great that Hackney Council have voted to adopt the Right to Grow principle and we hope to see a significant increase in food growing sites in the borough, bringing people together, getting healthy food for those that need it the most, with great biodiversity benefits and helping fight climate change”
Deba Salim, from The Garden of Earthly Delights and TimetoGrow! and Hackney Right to Grow co-ordinator stated “So pleased this long awaited motion has been passed finally! It’s high time to be growing food locally, and with it, building community resilience”.
Cllr Sarah Young, Hackney Council Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport reflected on “powerful speeches on the importance of growing our own food as part of our diverse cultural heritage – growing food that tastes of home in Hackney – as well as enjoying being active, eating well and cheaply and spending time with together and outdoors while we garden. She also thanked Cllr Lynne Troughton and the Hackney Right To Grow group for all their “…work on this. It was so good to end our full council with unanimous support for the right to grow across the council chamber. We have so many great gardening groups on Hackney’s estates and this motion starts the process of spreading the right to grow throughout the borough. Bring it on.”
Cllr Lynne Troughton added “I am so proud to have brought this motion which confirms our commitment to social and environmental justice. I look forward to working further with the campaigners that sparked the flame in me to get this over the line.”
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