Forests

Tim Farron
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the area of commercial woodland and forestry in England that is owned by (a) Forest Enterprise and (b) private landowners and public limited companies.

Huw Irranca-Davies
The information is not held in that format by the Forestry Commission. The “National Inventory of Woodland and Trees” published in 2001 included information on ownership type for woodland areas of 2.0 hectares or more. This is given in the following table.

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|Ownership type                        |Area (hectares)|
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|Personal                              |480,794        |
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|Business                              |146,601        |
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|Forestry or timber business           |7,200          |
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|Charity                               |68,484         |
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|Local authority                       |61,098         |
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|Other public (not Forestry Commission)|27,302         |
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|Forestry Commission                   |222,694        |
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|Community ownership or common land    |3,732          |
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|Unidentified                          |3,917          |
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|Total                                 |1,021,822      |
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