owning a woodland

But your wife didn’t seem keen.  Doubling a mortgage for no perceived benefit is the sort of thing where relationships unravel…. a divorce settlement with a woodland will take a long time to agree!

Poly, you had the balls to type what I was thinking!

buying a boat for example

Point to note – if we’re talking boats/yachts with flapping cloth and not too bling or too new, it’s quite hard to lose too much money on their purchase then future sale. Buy an early 2000s 30 odd footer now and you’ll likely get the same for her if you sell her on in 5 years time. Maintenance, repair, harbour dues or marina fees are a different matter however!…..“A boat is a hole in the water you throw money into.”. Not too dissimilar to classic car ownership I guess.

God this thread is the usual mix of the righteous who have no idea what they are talking about, bringing up loads of paper pushing rubbish. The usual talk of insurance,  stamp duty and other things that have absolutely no relevance to a private bit of woodland with the no rights of way across it. Much of it seems to stem from sour grapes of those who don’t have their own money to invest.

The idea that this is like buying an NFT is one of the stupidest things i’ve read on here or that the trend for purchasing woodland is like “tulip mania.”

Land is an asset – and I can’t see ever see with the way UK population is going, and climate change making living anywhere south of the pyrenees more and more of an uncertainty that the purchase of several acres of land is ever going to be a terrible investment.

Some of you people are what makes living in the UK dull –  dark lives, endless unnecessary paperwork and administration.

Have you actually read the thread?

stamp duty and other things that have absolutely no relevance to a private bit of woodland

Umm…. stamp duty will be payable at 3% (so £6k)

Much of it seems to stem from sour grapes of those who don’t have their own money to invest.

Neither does the OP he’s borrowing it.  I do and certainly wouldn’t, but that’s just my choice.

I can’t see [something, something] the purchase of several acres of land is ever going to be a terrible investment.*

Generally it isn’t….. but this is a wood on the side of a steep hill that is potentially never going to being built on. It is, therefore, not really an ‘investment’.  (If it was why are the current owners selling?)
My main thrust is that the OP has a plan for his young boys for the next 10 years and is willing to borrow money to see this vision come true.  As the father of older children I’m just saying that our visions for our children rarely pan out the way we think they will and that there’s a very real possibility that reality will be a far cry from the images currently in his mind when thinking about this.
For example, what if his boys get bored of riding their bikes there?  The main reason for buying the wood has then gone!

For someone who has £500k spare then putting a large chunk of that into such a plan is one thing….. but borrowing money to do it seems foolhardy.

* There are a number of people whose houses are falling into the sea that would probably disagree with you – but the OP is not one of these.

Just read a bit more of the thread re SSSI. It sounds as though the SSSI is notified for a feature that is not the woodland. This means two things 1) it’s harder for NE to refuse any consent you may need to do what you want. 2) BNG is likely to be available, I put the anchors on it being used to improve SSSI condition as the State has an statutory duty to do that, but the site fabric is fair game. You’ll have to get a thorough assessment of the condition of the woodland completed. BNG units for woodland are pretty well paying though, so you may get some income, but it will depend on a number of factors. That being said, the SSSI guidance hasn’t been released yet.

I have followed this thread from the beginning, intently. I ‘own’ 11 acres of woodland that is inside the Loch Lomond national park. Best thing i have ever purchased. Hours spent clearing, chopping down trees, splitting wood, sitting watching the deer, Does anyone have any idea how i go about getting grants? The .Gov website is a shambles (at least to my eyes). Is there a more useful source of information? 

I was fortunate that, from age 5-11, my parents’ house bordered a wood. My friends and I spent countless hours in there playing army & building dens, and had massive bonfire night celebrations in the clearing at the bottom. Properly idyllic stuff.

Those ratty buildings; any chance you could replace with some glamping pods on the same footprint to help it pay for itself?

put up a small shed with some holes big enough to stick camera lenses thru, drag road kill infront of it for a couple months until all the local raptors come to it, charge wildlife photographers a couple hundred quid a day to sit in the shed

I would try Google over the gov.uk search.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/woodland-grants-and-incentives-overview-table/woodland-grants-and-incentives-overview-table

Because of devolved powers I would enquire with NatureScot about upcoming possible grants and subsidy for Carbon Capture and Natural Flood Management type land management schemes. I know a number of schemes are in the making in England that would look at a number of years’ commitment (like 5-20 years) for a payment each year.

And the Woodland Trust and similar charities should also have information on grants.

so bit of an update.. I got hold of the woodland management plan, which didn’t make too scary reading except for the fact that the trees are something like 90% ash. Ash dieback is already in full flow in the area, so in ~10 years it seems like 4 out of 5 trees will have fallen down. This obviously puts a serious halt on the plans (not much fun for my kids to run round 20 acres of brambles), so it feels like its unlikely we’ll carry on with it, but just tidying up a few loose ends.

Ash dieback is already in full flow in the area, so in ~10 years it seems like 4 out of 5 trees will have fallen down.

Bonus! Do a deal with a local tree surgery company and sell the wood for log burners. Ash is great for log burners and can be burnt ‘green’.

They do the donkey work, you take a cut on the sale of wood. Then you can re-plant with native species and build a new woodland landscape.

the-muffin-man, not sure if its UK wide but there can be restrictions on transporting / selling diseased trees so I’m not sure it will quite the goldmine you hope!   But someone will find a tax dodge to replace those trees with something else!

https://arnosvale.org.uk/ash-dieback-faqs/#:~:text=Is%20it%20safe%20to%20burn,when%20they%20are%20in%20leaf.

Is it safe to burn seasoned ash logs infected with Ash dieback?
Ash dieback is a highly destructive disease of ash trees; however, it is perfectly safe to use seasoned ash logs that have been affected. The spores are only harmful to other ash trees when they are in leaf. Ash dries out wonderfully fast, once felled. You can buy logs from our shop.

I own several acres of woodland, and can attest that if you want to use it/have it for a purpose then you need to put a surprising amount of effort in.  As mention, species like Holly can take over very quickly and needs regular management, if the woodland is old growth then regular tree management is needed.

You’ll also need insurance, which will require a tree survey and management plan every 2 years to remain valid.  Any work you do will likely need authorisation by the local authority and some trees maybe subject to TPOs.

Unless you leave it alone (which would beg the question, why buy it?), you should expect £2000 to £5000 as a minimum to manage it (depending on size/condition).

thanks all. Whilst there is lots of firewood on the site, getting it off in bulk would be extremely challenging (its a 1-in-4 hillside in places, and due to being an SSSI you can’t clearfell it or use heavy machinery on it). it seems likely that its a bit “stuck” for the next 20 years as everything dies then new growth is slowly encouraged, which would also seriously hinder the ability to re-sell during that period if we wanted to.

there’s likely to be some grants for some of that, but a wood with one of those plastic-wrapped shoots every 10 meters is not quite the same thing as an established woodland, so given all that, we’ve decided not to continue for now