The Woodlander Initiative (TWI) is a land-buying scheme spearheaded by Simon Birkett (AKA Woodlander), a Wiltshire-based tattoo artist and long-standing far-right activist. 

The project has, so far, raised more than £179,000 and has the long-term aim of owning land in every county in the UK. In November 2024, HOPE not hate revealed the locations of two plots purchased by TWI near the village of Llanafan Fawr, Builth Wells in Wales, on which they have built a campsite. In 2025, the group bought a further plot near Rye, East Sussex.

Birkett, a former member of the National Front, the British National Party and the Conservative Party, has been involved in Patriotic Alternative (PA) since early 2020. From his “off-grid” cabin near Warminster, Wiltshire, Birkett has built an online following among the far right via his YouTube and Telegram channels and guest appearances on various fascist streams.

In June 2023, Birkett launched the TWI, a land-buying scheme aimed at far-right activists and conspiracy theorists. Purchasing land is a long-standing aspiration for many on the far right, who desire a space in which they can host events with fewer risks or, more ambitiously, to withdraw into “whites only” enclaves. TWI has links to larger and more successful projects overseas, including Return to the Land in the US and the Free Sweden movement.

Birkett described TWI as “a possible avenue to power”, stating that an organisation with land assets will quickly become “a multi-million pound organisation”. Birkett remains the sole individual listed as a “person with significant control” for The Woodlander Initiative Ltd on Companies House.

The other listed director is Joe Knight (AKA Wessex Nomad), a content creator from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. Knight has himself purchased a small plot near Llanafan Fawr, on which he and Birkett plan to build cabins for an “off-grid refuge”. Regional TWI groups elsewhere in the country are also looking to purchase plots.

In 2024, the group’s links to PA grew even tighter, as Birkett addressed the neo-Nazi group’s annual conference in October and advocated the building of a “parallel society” comparable to Orania, a whites-only town in South Africa. PA leader Mark Collett continues to champion TWI and PA activists have repeatedly camped at the TWI’s land in Llanafan Fawr. 

The project suffered difficulties early in 2025 due to Birkett’s ill health, as well as the myriad structural issues. TWI subsequently underwent a restructure, establishing a trust that effectively “owns” the land and a tier system in which donors have to pay a minimum of £125 in order to actually visit the land they have contributed to. The group also received national media coverage in August, after the press reported on our exposé from the year before.

In January, the group announced a promotional drive, hoping to double its membership and to expand into Ireland in 2026. This is set to include online advertising,  printed literature and branded merchandise.