On a sunny day in January, a ghostly figure covered in green ribbons appeared on a moor in south-west England. It was a person dressed as Old Crockern, the guardian spirit of Dartmoor. He was greeted by 3000 people who had gathered to protest a court ruling that took away the right to wild camp in the area. It was the biggest countryside access protest in living memory.
The ruling reignited a long-running concern over land in England: who owns it? And who is allowed to use it? The aristocracy and landed gentry still own around thirty per cent of English land, and half of England is owned by less than one per cent of the population.
How did we get here? What does land ownership have to do with wealth and power? And is there another way?
Ayeisha is joined by Nadia Shaikh, naturalist, conservationist and land justice activist with Right to Roam and Frances Northrop, associate fellow at the New Economics Foundation.
Further reading:
- Find out more and get involved with Right to Roam https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/
- Listen to the Land for Who podcast series sharedassets.org.uk/resources/land-for-who-land-justice-podcast-series
- Find out more about the Ecological Land Cooperative https://ecologicalland.coop/
- Read the Sold from Under You investigation https://council-sell-off.thebureauinvestigates.com/
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Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence.
Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. With thanks to Katrina Gaffney.
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The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org