Britain's garden retail sector digs in for challenges

Δημοσιεύθηκε: 29 Αυγούστου 2014 - 15:23

The plummeting level of home ownership among under 35 year olds in the UK poses fundamental challenges for the country's horticultural retail sector, according to a new report.

About 1.5m fewer people have a garden or allotment now than in 2007, with a particularly steep fall in Greater London, said the Horticultural Trades Association.

The drop is mainly affecting young people. Since 2007 there has been a 13 per cent fall in the number of under 45s with a garden or allotment, from 19.1m to 16.8m, but a 4 per cent rise in the number of over 45s with outdoor space, up from 22.1m to 23m.

Increased home ownership and rising economic prosperity from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s paved the way for the 'golden years' of the garden retail market between 1997 and 2005, said the HTA. Those who gardened in their 30s in the 1990s established habits that have continued to benefit the industry and may continue to enjoy gardening into old age.

But today, with 4m fewer homeowners under 35 now compared to 1987, there are long term implications for the garden retail industry, a sector worth an estimated £5bn in sales each year, said the HTA's report.

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>Renters spend on average only 55 per cent of the amount that homeowners do on their gardens. Other trends that threaten spending on garden products include a rising number of people living in highly urbanised areas where domestic gardens are scarce, the popularity of paving over front gardens for car parking and the rising proportion of flats. Garden size is shrinking, too; the HTA report charts an increase since 1998 in patios and "gardens less than the size of a tennis court".

The projected impact of falling levels of home ownership among today's young consumers could mean lost annual spending of £87m in 2023, when they reach the "core gardening" age group of 35 to 65, 2 per cent of the retail garden market. This could rise as high as £223m by 2033.

Both the HTA and the Royal Horticultural Society, the world's leading gardening charity, said renting property or having small gardens by no means precluded growing plants.

Guy Barter, chief horticultural adviser to the RHS, said: "Container gardening for example is especially popular with renters who can move their plants when they relocate." The RHS, he said, was also seeing a big increase in interest in community gardening, where people come together to garden, mostly in public areas.

There are strong regional variations among the UK's gardeners. Greater London, where home ownership has fallen from 61 per cent in 2007 to 43 per cent in 2013, has Britain's lowest spend per household on garden products, lowest garden access and far younger than average population.

But there is one unpredictable constant - the weather. The market was slightly down in 2013, said the HTA, due to a very cold March and April. It expects a rebound this year due to vastly improved weather.

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