SIR – I read the defence by Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier of the Government’s proposed sales of the national forests (Worcester News, January 28). The Forestry Commission is apparently being sold off to reduce national debt but the figures quoted are thoroughly misleading.
The commission costs the Exchequer £10 million every year.
The sale of 15 per cent is reckoned to raise £100 million.
So far so good, until one digs deeper and finds that currently, the privately- owned forests receive subsidies amounting to £35 million per annum together with other benefits such as general tax advantages and no death duties payable.
If the sale goes ahead the subsidy figure will rise and together with redundancy payments and other costs makes no sense.
This is blind ideology over sense.
HEATHER TIMNEY
Malvern Link
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