Uploaded April 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This is the first part of an interview with Paul Jennings, who lives on a smallholding in Pembrokeshire with his family, and built his own straw-bale home under the One-Planet Development policy that exists in Wales (but not in England), that allows people to build a home on their land, even if it is outside the development zone, if they can show that they will live with an ecological footprint of one planet or less.


Here's a transcript of the interview, with links to organisations mentioned in the video: lowimpact.org/one-planet-development-paul-jennings-part-1

We’re interviewing key players in the new economy, to:
a) bring their work to a wider audience
b) try to find ways to co-ordinate their efforts
c) stimulate debate
d) help to grow the new economy.

Here’s what we mean by new economy - lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/new-economy

Lowimpact.org: lowimpact.org
Paul’s smallholding, Criafolen: facebook.com/Criafolen
Open Credit Network: https://opencredit.network/
NonCorporate.org: noncorporate.org
One Planet Council: oneplanetcouncil.org.uk

Thanks also to the Open Co-op: https://open.coop/

Highlights
1. The One Planet Development policy allows people to build a home on their smallholding in the open countryside as long as they can show that they will live with a one-planet footprint or less.

2. The policy has worked better for people with money. The problem is the market in land, especially speculation on land prices near to towns – the best place for smallholdings to be located, so that they can provide produce to uran areas.

3. Most smallholdings are smaller than 8 hectares, but government subsidies and grants only kick in for holdings over 8 hectares. This needs to change if we’re going to encourage more smallholdings.