Land Settlement Association

The Land Settlement Association was a UK Government scheme set up in 1934, with help from the charities the Plunkett Foundation and the Carnegie Trust, to re-settle unemployed workers from depressed industrial areas,[1] particularly from North-East England and Wales.

[5] Settlements were set up in rural areas where each successful applicant’s family would be given a small-holding of approximately 5 acres (0.020 km2), livestock and a newly built cottage.

Small-holdings were grouped in communities which were expected to run agricultural production as cooperative market gardens, with materials bought and produce sold exclusively through the Association.

[1][6] The allocation of settlements to the unemployed was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War through the necessity of increasing food production; favour was given to those already with horticultural skills.

[8] The scheme was wound-up and all the properties privatised in 1983, by which time it was producing roughly 40% of English home grown salad crops.