planning in uk is designed to keep small holders off the land at all costs... and the market is run by solicitors and estate agents and its utterly corrupted....why?
Monopolism by the elite. Their wealth and control is based on an artificial scarcity of land. Labour made things worse in 1947 with the Town and Country Planning Act. Kudos to this woman for living independently. True free enterprise
i know what to do to show all of the adults in the constituency that stopping a group of new farm owners and workers will go against all of the green hype, all of the sustainability hype, and human decency and respect. i am going to buy land for my orchards and some to sell when the band wagon speeds out of reach of me and my business plan, the gang yob vandal MPs and local council vandal groups and their underlings try to stop your work, How low can people get?.
You don't need any permission to live off grid, you can go to solar power , solid fuel burning and well water anytime you like, you only need permission to change the use of the land, if there were no such laws every plot of land would be filled with unsafe shanty towns.
Thanks for the comment snd kind words John. If you're interested in being featured on lifeswap and telling your story we'd love to talk to you. You can contact us through our Facebook group or on the www.lifeswap.co.uk webpage :)
Good for you John, I'm an ex pat too in central Europe and would love to return to the UK but to live off the grid working the land with lots if animals.
love it to bits. I really hope every thing works out for you both. Your living your dreams. And mine best of luck for the new year. Take good care your very special
Please upload more videos, I love what you do. I escaped the rat race few years ago to live with very little money in central Europe. But I do wish I can do that in the UK, It's my home and I feel lonely here.
Good for you guys! We are about to find out if we have been successful in getting 3 acres, ours will be stock free. Our journey will also be on our channel soon, and we are writing a book about the whole process, it's a bare plot, no infrastructure, so gonna be hard work, it has temp planning permission for 5 years then we have to apply for full planning. Us Brits will join in the Homestead movement on small plots here in the UK. I hope people like you and us are an inspiration to others who dream of a different lifestyle. We wish you all the best x Jo and Dave
Thanks for coming back to us. We're organising some meet ups for likeminded people in Somerset and Devon later this year. We'll post the details on our Facebook group. Good luck with everything :)
people who have guts and a good plan make money on land, I am going to make wine on my land, enough to live on very well off grid ,done it before, best wishes in your work.
@Jo Feeney I’ve actually emailed you but I didn’t get a reply? And I said I would come and see you and I would, I never said anything romantically to this person about living with them. Im currently looking for some land to buy myself anyway but if I could link with someone it would be better. So are you going to mail me jo?
Muddy wellies are the way forward lol. I hope your adventure is still going strong. I think once you've had a taste of freedom, coming back to a 9 till 5 slave to the system becomes less appealing. ~🌻~
Try asking the local waste recyclers about acquiring some crushed brick to lay down over your muddy areas. thats a good start ! Admire your ambitions ... best wishes for the future !
You must have great satisfaction in what you’ve achieved. Something to be said for keeping busy to keep you sane. I’m looking to buy woodland for a similar simpler life.
join a single acre buying club and buy as many freehold single acre plots as you like or need, you can expect to pay load more for woodland these days , but if you plant a woodland your value goes up immediatly, Get a plan ready first.best wishes.
From Sussex England I would love to come maybe camping in the summer and give you a hand with jobs and learn from your experience, I have an 8 year old son he would love to get stuck in!
Well done the pair of you. Im moving to Devon soon I have bought a smallholding with a house and outbuildings and I am very lucky to have been able to do so. BUT what to do when Im there ?? I suppose it will all fall into place lol.
Thanks for commenting. That sounds great, if you're interested in getting involved in the lifeswap community of like minded off grid people we will be organising some get togethers during 2019 :)
Sounds good.. we’re just started the process to moving to Devon from saddleworth ,scary but also exciting.. we’ve got the estates agents coming around next week to take the pictures, just hope the place we’ve seen stays on the market👀🤞
Sounds really exciting. Please keep in touch as we'd love for you guys to join our growing little community down here in Devon and Somerset. Good luck with everything :)
Life Swap will do it won’t be off grid living... but it’s certainly a life swap & a big move for us, unfortunately the house we’re looking at doesn’t have a small plot of land like we have here but there’s plenty of farms around the South Molton area which might rent me a bit waste ground they don’t use, I breed copper black Maran’s so I’ll be looking at continuing that once we get there🤞
What’s a permission? Local bylaws etc? Do you have unincorporated areas like we do here in Ontario Canada? We have no local govt. no bylaws. Nothing so we are free. Our taxes are $350 a year.
In the UK we have to have planning permission as well as building regulations to live on any land, even if we own it. It's really difficult to get these permissions as well. Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for the comment and kind words Clara, if you're serious about buying your logs from them please drop us an email on the lifeswap website and we'll pass on your details to Andrea and Andy www.lifeswap.co.uk ... Thanks again :)
That is what I am going to do soon, i,ll buy five single acre freehold plots at fifty acre prices to plant orchards for wine, very nice and easy steady stressless job.
You don’t need to do it alone go into woof and you will find you can travel your way around lots of different groups living like this. Maybe find one you want to join. Good luck. I’m in the uk and saving to start something... the question is where? To buy land and set this up in the uk is very hard. And it would be nice to be somewhere with longer summers.
Indeed it is Hamzah S, if you'll pardon the pun. I mean, why would you pay for land or anything else if you still have no more right to decide what it's used for than someone who has no vested interest in it? Freehold means free, not subject to or ruled by another. The word has a meaning that seems to be lost on most people, like common sense or common law from which all others are derived. No doubt the term means 'Free to hold the land on a temporary basis for your master or landlord' whilst they're big game hunting in Africa or some such bullsh!t legalese definition. I say, "Man the pitchforks!", at least I would if I were not called sexist by some deranged lunatic with blue hair.
It really is. I mean I can understand if you were to build this in the midst of a city the reasons. But out in open land, improving or coexisting with it, there should never be an issue. It kills me knowing that no matter how hard I work, even if I own some land, someone from the government can come and tell me it has to go, or even that they have decided they are building a road, so you have to move it all.... No one wants others to have it "better" or "different" than them, How dare you build a lovely home, within 3 miles of my house that I never put any love into... that short of shit is what gets the government involved. Some one see's it and complains. So rule one of anything like this get to know the local, hell get them all involved in the build.
@DITCHY That is such bullshit. There is a distinction between a corporation and a human being. If the law can't distinguish between the two then the law is unworkable.
Welcome to Draconia also known as the UK. It's no wonder the Pilgrims left on the Mayflower for greener pastures and a better life all those years ago.
Everyone we've met so far has struggled with some sort of planning issues. Apparently there are loopholes but each case if different.. it's very frustrating :(.. Thanks for commenting.
@Mr Brightside that's true. Taxes frustrate some people when they think the council wastes it. However in the case of medical assistance we are fortunate that you can seek it without paying for treatment there and then. The US is very different.
@Mr Brightside if the government made their own money there wouldn't be any need to pay taxes, but it's a clever system to control the masses that's how they have us by the short and curlies !
Winner of a video, I've been looking for "water treatment for off grid water tanks" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Manonnor Illustrious Magic - (search on google )? It is an awesome one of a kind product for discovering how to create your own supply of the highest quality clean water minus the hard work. Ive heard some great things about it and my co-worker got great success with it.
HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR LAND PLEASEI want to go off grid and get away from the rat race and PEOPLE!, Ive had enough of all the violence, stabbings, loud music, screaming kids etc. I lost my home years ago when i got divorced so can only afford 2 acres of land. 😢I will build a wooden cabin, live off solar power, collect my own water, poo in a bucket and cook on a log burner! Screw the rest of the world! I admire you GOOD ON YOU! Plant TREES, you can use them for fire wood, Trees control flooding 😃 trees make the wind less on your home. If you have no utilities connected they CANNOT MAKE YOU PAY ANY COUNCIL TAX WHATSOEVER THAT IS ILLEGAL! They CANNOT evict you from your own land. If council prats come on your land uninvited that is TRESPASSING! I cant find any land anywhere because of the GREED! People asking £100,000 FOR ONE ACRE! I dont want any houses anywhere near me either. WELL DONE! 👍🏻 Is there any land near you I,ll come and join you and help!
Love what you guys are doing , so many people want to do it but are scared to take the plunge. I would sell up and do it tomorrow if I the wife was interested in that way of life , so fed up with full time employment and being bullied at work by managers is not a safe place to be. I take my hat off to you guys and wish you all the best for the future, I will follow you and I feel you will succeed and be happy 👍
Thanks for commenting, we will pass this onto Andrea and Andy we will be visiting them on a regular basis to see how the homestead develops. Thanks again :)
you can have it easily and very cheaply if you buy your freehold part of a much bigger area, then that big group of people with a bit of go could build an eco village. join the single acre club and buy how ever many you like , i will buy five seperate freehold single acres ,four to sell later with orchards established on all, i am good at trees. best wishes
join the single acre purchase club and buy as many freehold single acre plots as you like to use, rent,plant, play,enjoy, and what ever you like. best wishes from someone who has BEEN THERE before and got vandalized out of business by the policy of our government, you have to fight or you can,t win, jealousy will be your second worst enemy and listening to any local planners is the first and worst thing you could do, they are programmed to say no to anyone they think they will walk all our with bent planning polices employed by your local MP, your local councill gang yob vandal group ,, best wishes,, come and make wine with our private members coop or our commercial wine making. your ideas will be good fun and life will be newly lived. I will be buying five seperate freehold single acre plots, Think on, best wishes
It's insane to realise that being homeless in England is illegal - you can't not have a fixed address. You can't even wild camp in England as it's classed as trespassing as all land is owned. You need permission to build on the land you've bought, you need permission to have access to the land you've bought. You can't permanently live in a non-fixed building, as that would require taxing and, again, permission (E.g. Mobile home). Yet if you want a house, you have to mortgage a fortune from a bank, then required to work to pay that off or risk loosing everything. Not just the mortgage, but the utilities and all the 'stuff' to go inside it. You're in a fixed location, so that puts reasonable limits on the radius of which you can travel for work and the amount you can earn. You'll need a vehicle - again is a loan these days. Your employer will have you captured, as you'll have to obey to pay for the debt you've accumulated. At what point are we just becoming a slave to the system, just to provide the basics for survival? At what point does the freedom start? Besides the few weeks a year you get off from work, when do you get to live your life?
Fed up paying fat cat land lords and banks try buy find caravans some off grid land to rent or find a nice farmer get a park your home very cheap rent ,
but as a race we do depend to much on meat? the old term " balanced diet" should be used by all? this includes all the edible beneficial wildflowers there are in the world , there would be a lot less sickness in world and a healthy population? we just need to clean our sick minds then? lol.
what a wonderful, courageous and fantastic experience!!! You do have lots and lots of animals, large ones especially, that take so much care and bring on extra work that needs to be done. But I can see how rewarding this is. What a beautiful way to grow old together and live your life. Truely inspiring! PS do Andrea and Andy have a facebookpage or so where we can follow their experiences, or another way to contact them? Thanks!
Thanks for the comment and kind words, we will be regularly visiting Andrea & Andy over the next few months to see how things are progressing for them. They do have a Facebook page but I've not asked if I can post it here. If you join the lifeswap FB group, I'll check with them that they're happy for me to share it and post it there :)
We're about to give it a go, put everything we own into agricultural land already has a log cabin with solar and mains water and a smallholding of animals. Literally ditched our rental and ploughed investments into it. You only live once. Take a chance, if all else fails sell the land and buy something else. We're Done with society and it seems its done with us. Middle of nowhere.
Is there a quarter acre spare for a larger carpentry workshop build and space to site a couple of poly tunnels. Estate agents been no use the last three years. Thanks.
I always thought how totally silly it is that if someone owns some land in the UK and say it is totally away from anyone and you can't see it you can't be upset by anything on it? Even then you still need some pen pushing local planning public servant to Ok any work on your own land and any building even if no one would see it from anywhere else or have any upset from it. Yes of course we need planning rules for what is safe or right, But not what home you can build on your own away from anyone else land? Just totally silly system.. They need to set up a 3 zone rules for building on private owned land? Zone 1 > this be land at least 50 miles away from anyone else. this Zone can have any building built on it, as long as the fire and safety rules are followed? Zone 2 > at least 30 miles away from anyone else.. this zone can have any building that does not cause a eyesore or is a fire or safety risk? Zone 3 > at least 15 miles away from anyone else. Has the same main rules as zone 2 but also has a rule that states any building must meet the local county planning rules due to it being seen and have a effect on other homes? That way anyone in zone 1 can build a home and only need to make sure it is safe to live in.
Its to stop shanty towns springing up and destroying agricultural and wood land, but its true there is no option for a responsible person to live off grid.
What happens when they are no longer physically fit enough to do all these day to day chores. When they reach there 60s. How are they going to be able to support themselves then? I'm not trying to put a downer on things just trying to understand the bigger picture.
Bradley Domeier I was not being negative here I was asking a genuine question. Have you replied this way as I have touched a nerve in actually thinking long term.
Thanks for the comment, you do pose an interesting question and I'll ask Andrea and Andy next time we film with them to see what contingency plans they have in place, if any :)
They won't be able to sustain this lifestyle in their late 70's, that's assuming one or both of them don't develop debilitating medical problems before then. I'm a self employed gardener and I see it with my older clients all the time. They are simply unable to do the heavy jobs they previously managed, the elderly women who previously didn't do much physical work are able to do more than their previously active husbands nine times out of ten. Your question is probably the most important I've read on these type of lifestyle change videos.
scott smith I'm 70 and I run a large allotment on my own. I'm fit and active and my mother worked physically in her large garden and cycled everywhere till she died at 95 from a short illness (cancer.) She would laugh to think that you regard one's 60s as too old to do physical work. But like her, I eat well, don't smoke or drink, and maintain a belief in God. I know in some cultures 60 is seen as old, but now 60 is the new 45, and 70 is the new 50!