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. Between 1934 and 1939 1,100
small-holdings were established within 20
settlements.[2][3][4] A further five settlements of "Cottage Homesteads" of about half an acre were established from 1937 for unemployed men, who could continue to claim assistance.[5]
LSA cottage at The Abingtons
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
cooperativemarket gardens, with materials bought and produce sold exclusively through the Association. Applicants were
vetted and given agricultural training before being assigned a property.[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.[7] After the war the Association continued, encouraging people who wanted to work in horticulture or agriculture.[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.[1][9] The residual assets of the scheme were constituted as the LSA Charitable Trust,[10] for the benefit of former tenants and to promote horticultural education.[11]
Settlements
Land Settlement Association small-holding settlements were situated at:
^"Great and Little Abington", British History Online, para 5: "In Great Abington from the 1930s the Land Settlement Association built c. 45 houses to a standard design along roads laid out across the middle of the parish". Retrieved 18 August 2011
^"The Oxcroft Settlement", Victoria County History, "The Oxcroft Settlement was the only project of its kind in Derbyshire, and one of only two in England initiated by a county council". Retrieved 7 November 2017
^"Sidlesham, West Sussex", Kelly's Directory 1938: "During 1935, 800 acres of land were acquired by the Land Settlement Association Ltd. To provide smallholdings for men from the distressed areas of Northumberland & Durham". Retrieved 18 August 2011