At the time of writing, scores of candidates have already pledged – please visit the site to see if your candidates have done so and contact them if they haven’t! refĮ was launched as a mini-campaign targeting London council candidates ahead of the May 3rd local elections, urging them to pledge to double council tax on empty properties if elected. The British Caving Association has been campaigning for several years to get the govt and its various quangos Natural England and Natural Resources Wales to recognise that the ‘right to roam’ provisions of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW) apply to caves, and the current policy adopted by these bodies and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs – that cavers may only enter caves on open access land as far as the limit of daylight – is neither lawful nor an accurate reflection of the intention of Parliament when it passed the Act. Why should it not be extended to woodlands, to river banks, to rivers, to all uncultivated land - as per Scotland?

Marion Shoard calculates that only about 10% of England and Wales is open access land as a result of the CRoW Act. Our network of rights-of-way and access land is absent in most other countries including near neighbours. But it is essentially about power.' Guy Shrubsole,, May.05.2019.Īlso well worth reading: 'Private Island: Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else', James Meek, Verso Books, Oct.2014, ISBN: 978-1784782061Īlthough ownership of UK land is very restricted, public access to it is not - but it's not great, either. There is a lot about nature and how the land is used, misused and abused in this book. a clutch of MPs who all spoke in favour of grouse shooting in the 2016 debate triggered by my e-petition to the Westminster Parliament Benyon, Clifton-Brown, Drax and Bellingham – all land owners, all rich and 3 out of 4 Etonians.

The Book: Who Owns England? (book review) Mark Avery: 'I came across quite a few familiar names. In my day job I work for a startup: for 'Who Owns England' I work on data and build the maps. 'My work mapping offshore land ownership for Private Eye was highly commended at the British Journalism Awards.

On Twitter as Powell-Smith: Programmer, data analyst, map nerd.

Currently I’m a campaigner at Friends of the Earth. 'In the past I’ve worked for DEFRA, New Zealand’s Ministry of Agriculture and UK think thank Public Interest Research Centre. Guy Shrubsole: Activist, writer, troublemaker. They maintain that 'Who owns our country matters, because land is a scarce resource and ownership of it often confers wealth, power and influence'. Who Owns England? is a blog set up and maintained by Guy Shrubsole and Anna Powell-Smith.

Shrubsole who owns england