Hemp Fibre in the UK: Licence, Growing and Uses

What hemp fibre is

Hemp fibre is the bast fibre from the stalk of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa L. It lies between the outer skin of the stalk and the woody core.

The stalk gives two materials:

• Fibre: long, strong bast fibres. A review chapter by Sunny and Pickering (2021) puts fibre at about 25-30% of the stem’s dry weight.
• Shiv (also called hurd): the woody core, about 65-70% of the stem in the same review.

The same chapter lists hemp fibre at a density of about 1.5 g/cm³, a tensile strength of 550-1,110 MPa and a Young’s modulus of 58-70 GPa. Glass fibre in that table is stronger (1,400-3,000 MPa) but denser (2.55 g/cm³). The US page on hemp fiber has the full table.

The Home Office licence

Hemp can only be grown in the UK under a Home Office licence. Cannabis is a controlled drug whatever its THC level, so the low-THC crop is licensed as an exception. The rules below come from the Home Office industrial hemp licensing factsheet, last updated on 18 December 2025. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Other points from the factsheet:

• Where you can grow. On a farm, hemp can be grown anywhere within the farm’s extent. Rented bare land is covered only for the land in the rental agreement.
• One licence per site. Each grower and each site is licensed separately. Land on a neighbouring farm needs its own licence.
• Annual statement. Holders of multi-season licences complete a licence review statement at the start of each growing season, with cultivation areas, sowing details and yields.
• Police. Growers should tell local police where the crop is.
• CBD. Making CBD oil from the controlled parts of the plant is outside this licence.

What changed for 2025 and 2026

Three licensing changes were announced in April 2024, and one more is still pending. The Home Office set them out in a news story on 9 April 2024.

On THC, the government asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) whether the limit could safely rise to 0.3%. The ACMD supported it. In its response of 11 February 2025, the government said it “intends to make the legislative changes necessary to implement the increased level of THC in industrial hemp”, subject to Parliamentary procedures.

The factsheet updated in December 2025 still gives 0.2%. The British Hemp Alliance also wrote in 2026 that the change had not yet been implemented. Check the factsheet before you buy seed.

How much hemp the UK grows

There is no official UK figure in hectares in the sources opened for this page. What the government publishes is the number of licences.

• 136 licences in 2023, up from 6 in 2013, according to the Home Office news story of April 2024.
• 102 licences in force in Great Britain in November 2025, according to a Home Office minister’s written answer in Parliament. Most are held by farms; a small share by education or research bodies.

The two numbers are not a like-for-like series, so they do not show a trend on their own.

One grower gives a sense of scale. East Yorkshire Hemp says it grows up to 500 acres of hemp a year (about 200 hectares).

How hemp fibre is processed

Hemp fibre is separated from the stalk in two stages: retting, then decortication.

Retting is a controlled rot. The cut stalks lie in the field while soil microbes feed on the pectin and lignin that bind fibre to shiv, as a University of Vermont Extension guide describes it. The Home Office licence touches this step directly: leaves and flowers left on the crop must be retted on the licensed site or lawfully disposed of.

Decortication is the mechanical step that splits fibre from shiv. Bradford machinery maker Tatham told Textile World in 2023 that its lines have a maximum potential yield of 300 kg of fibre and 600 kg of shiv per 1,000 kg of stalk. A Tatham director said the UK has two of the most efficient hemp decortication lines operating in the world. The article does not name the sites.

What UK hemp fibre is used for

UK hemp fibre goes into textiles, bedding, insulation and panels. The Home Office names construction and textiles as lawful uses of hemp.

Examples from UK companies’ own websites, checked on 9 October 2026:

The woody shiv has its own market in building. Mixed with a lime binder it makes hempcrete, a non-structural insulating wall material. See hempcrete in the UK for properties, limits and suppliers.

Next step

If you are a farmer, read the Home Office factsheet in full and check the application dates on GOV.UK before ordering seed. For how the same crop is regulated in the United States, see industrial hemp.