Environment minister Caroline Spelman has admitted that the coalition government is still proposing to sell off 15 per cent of the UK's publicly-owned woodland.

Spelman made the announcement when giving evidence to the environment select committee - nearly two months after being forced to halt a consultation into the disposal of forestry. Dr Hilary Allison, policy director at the Woodland Trust, said: "Defra issued a suspension notice for the programme of forestry sales announced in the Spending Review in October 2010, until extra protections on access and biodiversity were put in place.

"Nothing has happened to change this situation in the meantime, so it is hard to see how these woods can have any lasting protection on a change of ownership."