Hounslow Council have been granted £165,000 from the government to help transform wasteland in the borough to help grow food. 

The UK Government's Shared Prosperity Fund has given Hounslow Council £165,000 to support their Grow for the Future programme, which will turn unused land in the borough into allotment sites, community gardens and orchards to grow food in a cost-of-living crisis and teach urban children about healthy living, sustainability and biodiversity.   

The council have already identified the 27-acre wasteland as the first site for this new project, an area which is presently largely inaccessible, and this funding will help get the project off the ground. 

Councillor Salman Shaheen, Cabinet Member for Parking, Parks & Leisure on Hounslow Council, said: "Grow for the Future will provide hundreds of new growing spaces for Hounslow's residents to put food on their plates as the cost-of-living crisis bites. We will take wasteland that has lain empty for years and put it to use equipping our children with vital life skills and educating them on biodiversity, sustainability and healthy living.  

"I am delighted that the government and the GLA have given their backing to this unique new programme. I hope other councils across the country will be inspired to take unused land and open it up as a common treasury for all people.  

"I want to give everyone in urban environments, young and old, so often disconnected from nature, the opportunity to cultivate land they can call their own and understand where our food comes from. To learn, and grow, for their future." 

Hounslow already has one of the largest portfolios of allotment plots, 1,950, in London and this next phase will enable them to offer another 500 new spaces for growing food in the borough. 

For the first-time ever in the UK, the council will look to pair each new site with a local school and dedicate a portion of it to teach urban children in often deprived areas about where their food comes from, the importance of good nutrition, and how to live healthy lives.   

The first phase of this project will see unused council-owned land converted into these spaces, before subsequently moving onto unused and inaccessible private land to help open it up to the public.