Managed by SF&G, the Community Land Advisory Service (CLAS) was set up to help community growing groups, landowners - plus others involved in land access - to work together to make more land available for community growing.

The service was originally funded to provide direct advice from expert advisers located in England, Scotland and Wales.

CLAS Service in Scotland

The CLAS service in Scotland continues to support groups and landowners seeking to offer land for growing with a wide range of enquiries. Do feel free to browse the site and links and if you seek further support contact us [email protected]

The Guide For Landowners

The Guide For Landowners (updated 2018) has been produced by the Community Land Advisory Service in Scotland and provides free, comprehensive information and advice to help landowners play their part in the surge in community gardening and food growing across Scotland.

A downloadable version of the Guide, along with template leases below, are available to download for free. Guide For Landowners - download here

Template leases:

Style lease template – Allotment let
Style lease template - General
Style lease template – Grazing let
Style lease template – Modern limited duration tenancy
Style lease template – Short limited duration tenancy

The publication is a response to evidence, including research conducted by Scotland’s Grow Your Own Working Group (GYOWG), which shows community groups can struggle to find land in order to expand and strengthen the capacity of their local community. Meanwhile, many landowners are keen to support such projects, but lack the knowledge of how to go about it, are worried about statutory responsibilities or find the process of lease negotiations too daunting.

The Guide has been created to provide key information on issues such as site suitability, leases, planning and land use and the law. It was written by the Community Land Advisory Service in conjunction with the Grow Your Own Working Group, Scottish Land & Estates and The Scottish Government. It was originally created in 2013 and was comprehensively updated in 2018. 

CLAS Service in Wales

The Community Land Advisory Service in Wales (CLAS Cymru) is a five-year project, funded by the Welsh Government. The CLAS Cymru team provide specialist support and advice to hundreds of community growing projects and landowners, helping thousands of people to get growing.

We are currently seeking further funding to resume the service in England.
CLAS has compiled a comprehensive portfolio of information resources – many of them created specially by CLAS. These cover topics such as finding land, information for landowners, planning, negotiating tips and information on leases. You can acces these here.

Read more at https://web.archive.org/web/20191207200221/https://www.farmgarden.org.uk...

Read more at https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/clas

Case Studies

Inspirational case studies from our members across the UK.