The Woodlander Initiative is buying Welsh land for ‘the British people’ – what should shareholders know?
CHALLENGING CORPORATE POWER: A far-right land-buying scheme in Wales could become a powerful base for extremism – controlled by one man with ties to fascist groups.
by Einir Bach, Bylines Cymru
In November 2024, the organisation HOPE not hate revealed that a company called The Woodlander Initiative Ltd (TWI) has been purchasing plots of land in Cymru. The revelation was a wakeup call, because HOPE not hate’s stated mission is “to work tirelessly to expose and oppose far-right extremism”.
There’s nothing unusual about organisations based in England buying Welsh land. Prices are typically cheaper than over the border, and there might be many reasons to support charitable organisations to obtain land here. But establishing ‘whites-only enclaves’ is hardly the most desirable one, and this is what appears to be happening.
Given the steady rise of extremism in the UK and around the world, the Hope not hate investigation into TWI is something we should take seriously. Especially given how central ‘Blood and Soil’ narratives were to the rise of European fascism during the 1920s. We have been here before.
Quite an achievement
According to HOPE not hate, TWI is “a land-buying scheme aimed at far-right activists and conspiracy theorists with links to Patriotic Alternative (PA), the UK’s largest fascist group”. While TWI’s website states that it’s “not a political organisation”, the language it uses is recognisably that of alt-right narratives.
The HOPE not hate investigation also revealed that two plots of land TWI recently purchased in Llanfaban Fawr near Builth Wells have been used to run “training camps” for Patriotic Alternative members. TWI’s stated long-term ambition is “owning land in every county in the UK”. Would you want a PA training site near your community?
Another reason to sit up and take notice is because the Hope not hate exposé doesn’t involve a well-respected, widely known community organisation, or one that launched with a publicised fanfare. TWI didn’t exist until recently, and has a low profile outside far-right circles. Yet, since launching in June 2023, TWI has “purchased two plots of land – each of several acres”. For an organisation that was only 18 months old at the time Hope not hate went to press, that’s a startling achievement. It clearly has sufficient appeal to recruit enough members and generate sufficient income to fuel land ownership. As of today, its website says it has raised £154,490.
What’s their appeal?
According to that site, TWI wants to make its land “accessible to our members … for recreational activities like walking, hiking and camping” and other purposes including “conservation of our historic woodland, meadows and pastures”. TWI “recognises the desire for many people to return to the land, in whatever form this may take, from growing fruit and vegetables, rearing poultry and livestock, to smallholdings and sustainable housing”. Its stated aim is “to ensure that this holistic, nature-based way of living, either individually or in larger groups is encouraged and enthusiastically pursued”.
It does sound appealing, but that’s not all. TWI encourages members to start land-based businesses, “either individually or in groups” – something you might think of as cooperatives – with the opportunity to benefit from “interest-free funding on agreed terms” and “free guidance and support from TWI Officers and members”. Essentially, the pooling of collective resources to support collective endeavour.
If you’re dissuaded by creeping doubts that this sounds ‘a tiny bit communist’, well, at least signing up is easy. You can join the club for just £10 a year and “become a shareholder”. Its constitution is refreshingly short and easy to find, with potential members actively encouraged to read it before joining.
Indeed, far-right leaders in the UK have been so impressed with TWI that they’ve given it their full support. Mark Collett, leader of Patriotic Alternative, has said: “The Woodlander Trust is a fantastic initiative that allows nationalists to pool their money in order to purchase land and property.”
That winning combination of nationalism and socialism has seen TWI membership and investment push the ‘progress so far’ barometer to over 15% of its £1,000,000 fundraising target. However, the way TWI is set up should trouble the most ardently ‘patriotic’ members.
Behind the curtain
From a casual reading of the club’s website, anyone paying £10 a month becomes a ‘shareholder’. “To become a shareholder in the Woodlander Initiative, sign up!” Easy! But no – the website then explains that the membership fee only “helps to pay for the administrative costs of the project (and no more)”. Membership simply confers “the ability to purchase shares and track your holdings”.
Shares in what? It’s unclear unless you read the constitution. It says membership provides “eligibility for purchasing shares in THE WOODLANDER INITIATIVE LTD”.
This is because an unincorporated membership organisation cannot buy land or issue shares. To overcome this, TWI hasn’t adopted one of the charitable, community interest or community benefit legal structures available, but came up with its own novel approach. TWI isn’t one organisation but two.
There’s The Woodlander Initiative (TWI) private members’ club, for those attracted to buying land for the exclusive use of the ‘British people’ – “as a distinct group comprising of the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish” – and The Woodlander Initiative Ltd, a private company limited by shares, which only members can buy.
Before we look at TWI Ltd in more detail, there are things about the club constitution that prospective members may wish to be aware of.
Constitutional terms
First, it’s not immediately clear who’s running the club. This matters, because the committee holds the power to investigate member conduct, expel members, and terminate membership. Such termination will result in “forfeit of all privileges of membership”, including holding shares.
The committee also has the power to call a general meeting of the club, without giving 14 days’ notice to members if “the urgency of the business to be discussed so requires”. So it can call a meeting with no notice whatsoever if it chooses.
And it’s the sole authority for the interpretation of club rules, which are “final and binding to the members”. So, though it’s the “overarching aim” of TWI “to take back control of our land, our freedoms and our future”, it’s the committee, not members, who have the power to exert such control.
Say you’re happy with all of the above and still thinking of buying shares. Who has control over how your investments will be managed?
The Woodlander Initiative Ltd was registered as a private company limited by shares (company number 14872595) on the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales on 16 May 2023, under ‘Sic Code’ 02100 for the purpose of “Silviculture and other forestry activities”. Not for buying and selling land per se.
Significant control
The company launched with one director, Simon John Birkett, who was joined by director Joe Knight in August 2023. Neither is listed as holding appointments as directors of other companies. Neither has ever been struck off and banned from being a company director. That’s the good news.
In terms of who has significant control over the company, only Simon John Birkett is listed. Of the one million shares in TWI Ltd Birkett “holds, directly or indirectly, 75% or more of the shares in the company and 75% or more of the voting rights”. What Simon says, goes. This ‘person with significant control’ also “has the right, directly or indirectly, to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors of the company”. What Simon says, goes.
TWI Ltd accounts were supposed to be submitted by 16 February 2025, but as yet have not been. Companies House therefore posted a First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off of the company on 15 April. The following day this was discontinued, as “cause has been shown” why the company shouldn’t be struck off. That cause wasn’t publicly revealed.
As TWI members don’t have ultimate control over their own club, and those who buy shares don’t have significant control over the company they’re investing money in, then what is Birkett’s vision for TWI?
An avenue to power
According to Nation.Cymru, Birkett is: “A tattoo artist who has previously been involved with the National Front, the British National Party and the Conservative Party … and has built an online following among the far right via his YouTube and Telegram channels and guest appearances on various fascist streams. Birkett has been involved in PA since early 2020 and addressed the group’s annual conference in October … he dismissed the viability of electoral politics for the far right and advocated the building of a ‘parallel society’, citing Orania, a whites-only town in South Africa, as an example.”
He’s quoted as saying, “if we can get an organisation together which is asset rich – owns land, maybe property – we will suddenly, within a very short period of time, become a multi-million pound organisation. That has power … suddenly we’re not a political organisation, but … a very powerful organisation that has clout.”
So TWI’s appeal to members and investors is that the intention is to go way beyond simply securing land around the UK for their exclusive use. In Birkett’s words, it’s a possible avenue to power for the far right, and to “white enclaves”.
But because he’s put himself in the position of significant control, it’s Birkett who has the power to decide what to do with investors’ money. He’s granted himself licence to use TWI as his own ‘avenue to power’ at the head of “a very powerful organisation that has clout” if he chooses.