Don’t sell Epping Forest’s Buffer Lands

Background info

We were deeply concerned to see a paper go the Epping Forest & Commons Committee (EF&CC) meeting on Thursday 29th May 2025 which :

• Renames the Epping Forest Buffers Lands as “Complementary Lands”
• Sets in train the development of a new “Complementary Lands Policy”
• Establishes a new “Appraisal of the Complementary Lands”.

This paper had come from the City’s most powerful committee, the Policy and Resources Committee, who set itself as the decision-maker in relation to the above three issues.

Our view at the Trust is that not only should the existing Buffer Lands be retained, but that the City should be looking to grow the existing Buffer Lands to better protect the Forest.  We are also deeply concerned that the change in terminology from Buffer Lands to Complementary Land already demonstrates a devaluing of the importance of these green spaces.

We continue to keen a close eye on the development around Buffer Lands

Below please see our responses and the progress in relation to the City’s ‘Complimentary Lands Policy’ and ‘Complimentary Lands Appraisal‘. 

28th May 2025: We submitted a letter to EF&CC

We submitted a letter to EF&CC ahead of the meeting, setting out our position and expressed our concern in relation to the possible future of Epping Forest’s Buffer Lands.

29th-30th May 2025: We watched the EF&CC meeting discussions and shared a meeting debrief

We watched the EF&CC meeting discussions (debrief here) where the EF&CC made the case to be involved in all of the above discussions, and for certain changes to be made to the policy review and appraisal. Our Chief Executive, Peter Lewis, has also posted about this on Linked in here.

In summary, despite some positive statements and discussions in relation to wanting to protect Epping Forest’s Buffer Lands at the EF&CC meeting, and important issues being raised at the meeting about decision-making in relation to the Epping Forest Buffer Lands, especially by Verderers Nicholas Munday and Paul Morris, as well as from the Chair and a number of Committee Members, we remain greatly concerned about the development of the Complementary Land Policy, the Complementary Land Appraisal, and the potential future sale of the Buffer Lands by the City of London Corporation.

11th June 2025: we submitted a brief to City of London’s Policy & Resources Committee

Before the City’s Policy & Resources Committee meeting on the 12th June 2025, we submitted a brief to committee members brief to P&R Committee members to reiterate our position that:

• We think the Buffer Lands should retain their current name. They were bought or acquired to protect the Forest, a job they have done well, and continue to do well. Their name reflects their purpose.
• The City of London Corporation should retain the Buffer Lands as a green buffer to physically protect the Forest. Indeed, at this time of even greater threats to the Forest from climate change, pollution and adjacent development, and as the sole Trustee of the Epping Forest Charity, we think the City should be looking to expand the Buffer Lands to afford even greater protection to the Forest, not looking to reduce the protection it already has.
• We are concerned about the clear conflicts of interest that exist between the City of London Corporation, who might want to sell or develop the Buffer Lands for profit, and the City of London Corporation as Conservator of Epping Forest under the 1878 Act, and the City of London Corporation as the sole Trustee of the Epping Forest Charity.
• We, and the Epping Forest Consultative Group, should be consulted formally about the Complementary Land Policy and Complementary Land Appraisal whilst they are still in draft form, before they go to the Epping Forest & Commons Committee for discussion, and before they come back to the Policy & Resources Committee for decision