Join the ELC as an Ecological Farmer

The ELC model is to buy a parcel of land of around 20 acres and divide it into 3-5 small farm plots of between 3 and 10 acres. We apply for planning permission for agriculturally tied, rural workers’ dwellings for each plot so that our new smallholders can live on their land. As part of the development, the ELC provides shared infrastructure on site which includes a track, a shared barn, a rainwater collection system, and a PV array on the barn roof. We also provide support to our new farmers in the form of business planning and agricultural mentoring. You can find out more about our model here.

We then sell a 150 year lease for the plot with permission for the smallholder to site a temporary dwelling on their land. We aim to keep the leases affordable for new entrants to farming. The price of the lease is set to recover ELC’s costs of buying and developing land and is subsidised with our own fundraising. There are also options to pay the cost of lease over time.

Initially the planning permission is temporary for 5 years so that the farmers can prove they are engaged in farm-scale agriculture and demonstrate both the financial viability of their ecological businesses and also a functional need for them to be living on their land in order to maintain them. Before the end of this 5 years, and once the businesses have been established, the ELC will apply for permanent permission for smallholders to live on their farms.

We’re on the hunt for passionate landworkers and ecological entrepreneurs who are ready now, or will be ready in the next 1-2 years, to build an ecological growing business on an ELC plot.

We don’t expect you to be ready to go today. We are very keen to hear from you if you are passionate and committed to gaining enough experience to set up a small farm business. This business could be any land-based enterprise – from fruit and veg, to animal products & dairy, fibre, fuel and medicine.

We’d like to develop good relationships over an extended period of time with people who are interested in becoming ELC stewards, to help us get to know each other and perhaps to identify where you need to gain more experience in order to take on this exciting challenge and commitment.

To get started we ask that you read all the information in this section of the website, including our interview with current ELC tenant James Dexter, our step-by-step guide to the application process (below) and our guide to our lease agreement.

A step by step guide to the application process

Our application process is open-ended and its stages are not set in stone. The steps described below provide an outline of the kind of process applicants can expect. We expect that every applicant’s experience of the process will be slightly different because every applicant will be at a different stage in their journey of being ready to take on an ELC holding. To express your interest in making an application or ask a question, please complete our short expression of interest form and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.