The planning system in Scotland can be a key ally in safeguarding the assets that many communities have yet to realise but this requires an urgent change in our thinking. There are  community groups across Scotland developing locally-led food solutions, demonstrating how tackling the health, environment, poverty, and other crises through the lens of food provides many low-cost and far-reaching benefits.The future has unprecedented challenges, and communities’ activities are building assets, resilience, food security, and restoring nature. Every community should have the opportunity to take part.

Improving health and wellbeing to developing climate resilience, there are solutions on our doorsteps that can regenerate every community and ourselves through partnering with nature and the planning system can be our ally.

Finding and securing land is at the start of the journey. It is not a ‘walk in the park’ to start and sustain community-led food growing, and it requires imagination, navigating systems and barriers, and gathering and deploying resources with the tenacity of pioneers. We aim to support groups at all stages, sharing ideas and experiences and devising solutions and, on a system scale, tapping into assumptions, practices, policies, systems, and silos, identifying what needs to change and work better for ourselves, nature, the climate and our communities. National Planning Framework 4, Local Development Plans and other related policies and measures offer an exciting way forward when connected, implemented, challenged and developed.

We are working with partners and practitioners to identify levers for change in this framework, to inspire communities to activate ‘green citizenship’ through planning, and enablers to enact their role in it. Landowners, both public and private developers, and local authorities and agencies are also getting involved as they see the deeper benefits of partnering with communities. This is all crucial, and with Local Development Planning moving from a 5 to 10-year cycle we need to act now to raise the status of community food growing, to prepare for the large-scale investment of funds, skills and resources where it is needed, and the attention it merits. We need to go faster and further, be fairer by including all, and safeguard the assets that many communities have yet to realise. A paradigm shift, to strengthen pathways, policies and frameworks to move ‘greenspace’ from a nebulous concept to one of local nature infrastructure, where communities lead, and food growing is the hub.

This article was first published by the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum, December 2023.

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