It has emerged that the selling of England’s public forests could actually cost the country more than it would save, a study by the Government revealed yesterday.

MP’s are preparing to debate the plans to sell 258,000 hectares of Forestry Commission land in the Commons today, but a joint Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Forestry Commission study has revealed that the sell-off, intended to raise £250 million, would actually cost the taypayer in the long term.

The sell-off, transferring heritage forests like the New Forest in Hampshire and the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire to a conservation charity would cost £507.9m but yield benefits of only £495.9m. Selling, or leasing, of the large-scale commercial woodlands would cost between £579.1m and £748.7m but generate benefits of between £573.1m and £737.8m, the study reports. Woodland earmarked to be offered to communities would involve costs of £234.1m and bring in an estimated £231.9m.

Mary Creagh, the shadow Environment Secretary, said: “The devil is in the detail of these proposals. Defra’s own impact assessment reveals that every option for selling the forests costs the taxpayer more than keeping them in public ownership. This shows that the Government’s proposals are economic as well as environmental madness.”

Online campaign group 38 Degrees currently have over 407512 signatures, while 80,000 people have signed the Woodland Trust’s campaign petition. We reported last week that local campaign groups have been setup to oppose the sale of the forests.