One Planet Development and access to land: Paul Jennings, OPD smallholder and self-builder

This is the first part of an interview with Paul Jennings, who lives on a smallholding in Pembrokeshire with his family, and built his own straw-bale home under the One-Planet Development policy that exists in Wales (but not in England), that allows people to build a home on their land, even if it is outside the development zone, if they can show that they will live with an ecological footprint of one planet or less.


Here's a transcript of the interview, with links to organisations mentioned in the video: https://www.lowimpact.org/one-planet-...

We’re interviewing key players in the new economy, to:
a) bring their work to a wider audience
b) try to find ways to co-ordinate their efforts
c) stimulate debate
d) help to grow the new economy.

Here’s what we mean by new economy - https://www.lowimpact.org/lowimpact-t...

Lowimpact.org: https://www.lowimpact.org/
Paul’s smallholding, Criafolen:   / criafolen  
Open Credit Network: https://opencredit.network/
NonCorporate.org: https://www.noncorporate.org/
One Planet Council: http://www.oneplanetcouncil.org.uk/

Thanks also to the Open Co-op: https://open.coop/

Highlights
1. The One Planet Development policy allows people to build a home on their smallholding in the open countryside as long as they can show that they will live with a one-planet footprint or less.

2. The policy has worked better for people with money. The problem is the market in land, especially speculation on land prices near to towns – the best place for smallholdings to be located, so that they can provide produce to uran areas.

3. Most smallholdings are smaller than 8 hectares, but government subsidies and grants only kick in for holdings over 8 hectares. This needs to change if we’re going to encourage more smallholdings.