London Land Justice Fair in Myatt's Fields

Enjoyed the London Land Justice Fair in Myatt's Fields Park in Camberwell last month (21st July 2024), lots of stalls and chats plus a meeting marquee where I went to an interesting session on 'who owns London?'. Before I went I wasn't too sure about the concept of 'land justice' but I came away thinking that it's quite a neat way of framing the connections between housing, environmental, food and other issues which ultimately come down who owns and controls land and buildings, and who determines what uses they are put to.

As explained in 'Towards a Manifesto for Land Justice' (2024):

'‘Land’ is all the earth’s resources: the physical surface of the earth, both land and water, urban and rural, what lies beneath, and the atmosphere above. Land is also more than its physical attributes. Land is home to people and other species. It contains history, memories, stories, dreams and aspirations. It is a ‘place’ that people are rooted in, the context in which their lives are played out. 

However, for centuries land has been an economic asset for a small minority, its value determined by how it is used and priced by the market, displacing the majority - physically, economically, socially, politically and culturally'.

'Let's make London a Commons!'

Anyway People's Land Policy have put together a nice short film of the event which captures its conversational feel -