Forests sell-off: new wrapping, same poisonous proposal

Last Thursday, Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State at Defra, released the consultation paper on selling off the Public Forest Estate in England. Here’s how I see it:

• The campaign against the sell-off has already achieved some notable successes.
• This has forced the government to try and get much smarter about the sell-off.
• This consultation is little more than a sophisticated smoke screen.
• There's still all to play for.

The proposals that they are consulting on are simply explained:

• Ideally, government would like to take the totality of the Public Forest Estate (all 285,000 hectares) out of public ownership.
• If possible, they intend to create some new not-for-profit organisations to own and manage both the "heritage forests" (such as the Forest of Dean and the New Forest) and smaller, "local" woodlands with special conservation value.
• They want to get rid of the rest via long leases sold to the private sector.
• They will apparently undertake to maintain the Forestry Commission's current arrangements on access and biodiversity via conditions in these long leases.
• They would like to see the Forestry Commission converted into a straight regulator of all forestry enterprises in England.

To be fair, that is indeed somewhat different from what they first wanted to do, which was to sell off the lot at the best possible price into the private sector. And this was seen explicitly as part of its ideological drive to shrink the size of the state.

But I hope people aren’t going to be fooled by these apparent concessions. The basic intent is still exactly the same: privatise one the country’s most cherished public assets.

This means that people shouldn’t get too diverted by the consultation. The focus should instead be on the Public Bodies Bill, currently going through parliament. If this goes through unamended, it will allow the government to do what it really wants whenever most convenient for them.

Watch Jonathon Porritt's interview on Channel 4 News about the forest sell-off

So just imagine the following timeline. This spurious consultation will conclude some time in the summer; the Public Bodies Act will be on the statute book by the autumn. The government can then start formally negotiating with private forestry companies regarding long leases. But, surprise, surprise, they decide not to play ball because they can’t make it work commercially.

So this time next year, Mrs Spelman “regretfully” informs parliament that the leasehold proposal hasn’t worked and they are going to have to sell off the freeholds after all. Bit of an uproar, but there’s sod all our sad MPs can do about it – as Mrs Spelman herself confirmed in her appearance before the EFRA Select Committee:

Chair of EFRA Committee: “So that’s a once and for all legislative permit that you will never again as a department have to come back for future sales of forestry or such?”

Defra Civil Servant: “That is the intention.”

Secretary of State, Mrs Spelman: “The Public Bodies Bill is an enabling bill of the reform on a wide range of arms-length bodies.”

Chair of EFRA Committee: “So you’ll never, ever again have to come and ask permission?”

Secretary of State, Mrs Spelman: “We should not have to, no.”

Chair of EFRA Committee: “So this is our one and only chance?”

DEFRA Civil Servant: “Yes.”

You have been warned!

Does that sound a bit paranoid? Possibly, but stick to the basic intent: reduce the size of the state. This means getting the Public Forest Estate out of public ownership by hook or by crook.

All the rest is flim-flam. All the “Big Society” guff in the consultation about community ownership is just window dressing. A few thousand hectares might indeed end up as community-owned and managed (or NGO-owned and managed), but so what? They won’t be managed any better than the Forestry Commission manages them today and most users won’t feel any more or less enthusiastic or empowered than they do today.

And all the consultation’s warm words on securing the same levels of access and biodiversity benefits that the Forestry Commission delivers today borders on the dishonest. Will they really enforce all the Forestry Commission’s permissive access agreements on any potential leaseholders? I don’t think so. Will they really oblige potential leaseholders to maintain existing FSC certification on every hectare, as is the case today? I don’t think so.

Good try, Mrs Spelman, but not good enough.

This is why there is still all to play for in terms of killing off this scheme stone dead. Astonishingly, more than 250 000 people have now signed up to the 38 Degrees petition against the sell-off. Of these, 20 000 have now emailed their MPs to focus them on the Public Bodies Bill and not be distracted by yet another tokenistic consultation.

In that regard, it’s worth pointing out that all this has been achieved without a single one of our big environmental NGOs having even flexed their muscles. And that in itself is a very interesting issue – to which I will return next time.