When police arrived at a field outside Bristol in October 2023, two old cars with wheels removed were blockading the gates. Protesters had hauled them across the entrance to stop developers building on a slice of north Somerset green belt. The threat was not housing or industry, but a company building vegetable patches.
Roots builds privatised allotments for city dwellers to grow food. Co-founded in 2021 by Christian Samuel, Ed Morrison and William Gay, the startup was born from frustration with a 28-year waiting list for a council plot in Streatham, south London. “We thought: ‘This is crazy’,” says Samuel, 32. “‘Why don’t we just build our own?’”
The idea was a runaway success. Roots now has 20 sites from London to Leeds, with nearly 5,000 customers. Last October, the founders announced a £6m fundraise, backed by former Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy and Wahaca co-founder Mark Selby. There are early plans for a site in Austin, Texas – Roots’ first abroad.
The startup leases farmland and turns it into plots rented out on subscription, with prices from £9.99 to £49.99 a month for up to 108 sq metres. One adviser describes it as “WeWork for allotments”. More than 170,000 people sit on council allotment waiting lists across the country. “For many people it is not about growing the food, it’s the mental health and wellbeing side of being outside,” says Samuel.
But not everybody sees it that way. A Facebook group, Roots Allotments uncovered, has attracted more than 1,700 members. Opponents accuse the company of aggressive expansion, developing land first and applying for planning permission later. Simon Talbot-Ponsonby, 73, who lives next to the Bristol site, accuses the founders of “trashing” the countryside. Truckloads of compost were dumped on formerly grazed meadows, he says, with an 80-space car park built for 700 plots.
Resistance has sprung up elsewhere. In Ecclesfield, near Sheffield, the council denied planning permission in December, seven months after diggers removed hedgerows (the company has appealed). In West Sussex, there was outcry when Roots started work on protected land within the South Downs national park. Protesters have poured cement into locks, deflated digger tyres and filled valves with superglue. Samuel calls them “haters” and says: “Even when we were planting trees we had to call the police. They’re relentless.”
