Post by John Chanin on Aug 11, 2023 10:23:36 GMT
Epping (or Waltham) Forest was one of the medieval royal forests reserved for hunting by the king and his associates. The best known remnant of historical times (apart from a few earthworks) is the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge, which is actually just outside the constituency in Chingford. Quite a lot of the forest still remains - there are small remnants extending into London as far as Forest Gate, but most of it is in this constituency. Of course there are few residents in the forest, but the leafy village of High Beech contains the Visitors Centre and a fine pub, and is crammed with day trippers from London on a summer weekend.
The constituency consists of most of the Epping Forest District, which extends to the north of London on the east bank of the river Lea. The District is too large for a seat of its own, and the northern and eastern rural parts are hived off to Harlow, and Brentwood constituencies. What is left is essentially urban and can be divided into 4 parts. Largest is the Buckhurst Hill/Loughton/Debden area which is geographically a part of London, with the urban area being continuous from Woodford in the borough of Redbridge. This is very nearly half the seat. Also essentially London is Chigwell which sits on the other side of the river Roding just to the north of Ilford. Waltham Abbey is just across the river Lea from Enfield and Waltham Cross and is an ancient settlement reputed to be the burial place of Harald Godwinson and first mentioned in the reign of Cnut, although most of the development is much more recent. Lastly there is the market town of Epping, one of the most distant reaches of the London Underground, and the terminus of the Central Line. The only other settlement is the quasi-rural village of Theydon Bois (Boyes not Bwa) which sits between Loughton and Epping.
This is a classic outer London suburban seat, thoroughly middle-class for the most part, although there is a large post-war overspill council estate at Debden, on the far northern end of the conurbation. However like most such low-rise peripheral estates it has mostly been sold off and is owner-occupied these days, although with lower occupational and educational statistics, which contrasts strongly with Loughton to the south. Waltham Abbey also has a fair amount of rented housing and is much more working class than the rest of the seat. Chigwell is reputationally the home of London gangsters made good (with the bodies buried in the forest), and certainly contains many large detached houses. There has been a large influx of asian residents here - now well over 25% - as people move out from London. In fact between censuses there has been a substantial reduction in the white proportion in the constituency as a whole, something it shares with similar areas inside the Greater London boundary.
As a constituency it was created in 1974. The enormous Epping constituency was split between new Chingford and Harlow seats, with the small central area around Epping and Waltham Abbey linked with Chigwell, which had only been a seat on its own since 1955. Norman Tebbitt and Stan Newens who had shared the old marginal Epping seat in the 1960s, took the opportunity to move to the new seats. There have only been minor changes since. Locally the area is solidly Conservative. The former Labour vote in Debden has faded away, and they have no presence in Waltham Abbey either. Liberal Democrat support here is limited to Epping. Loughton has developed a hegemonic Residents party which wins every seat on the local council, both rich and poor alike, but not enough to threaten Conservative control. This doesn’t carry over to national elections, where this is another extremely safe Conservative seat, held until 2024 by Eleanor Laing, and left completely unchanged by the Boundary Commission. The previous MP was Steve Norris who fought Ken Livingstone in the first London mayoral election.
Unusually there was no Reform candidate in 2024, which gives us an idea of how things might have gone elsewhere without them. The swing to Labour was 15% - very close to average for seats won by Labour, but higher than the swing across the country as a whole. The new MP is Neil Hudson, displaced (a very long way) from Penrith & the Border. He was a vet prior to election.
Census data: Owner-occupied 69% (211/575 in England & Wales), private rented 16% (404th), social rented 15% (269th).
: White 81%(394th), Black 3%(167th), South Asian 7%(155th), Mixed 4%(116th), Other 5%(173rd)
: Managerial & professional 44% (144th), Routine & Semi-routine 19% (494th)
: Degree 34% (224th), Minimal qualifications 28% (259th)
: Students 6% (255th), Over 65: 18% (319th)
Boundaries : The seat is unchanged
The constituency consists of most of the Epping Forest District, which extends to the north of London on the east bank of the river Lea. The District is too large for a seat of its own, and the northern and eastern rural parts are hived off to Harlow, and Brentwood constituencies. What is left is essentially urban and can be divided into 4 parts. Largest is the Buckhurst Hill/Loughton/Debden area which is geographically a part of London, with the urban area being continuous from Woodford in the borough of Redbridge. This is very nearly half the seat. Also essentially London is Chigwell which sits on the other side of the river Roding just to the north of Ilford. Waltham Abbey is just across the river Lea from Enfield and Waltham Cross and is an ancient settlement reputed to be the burial place of Harald Godwinson and first mentioned in the reign of Cnut, although most of the development is much more recent. Lastly there is the market town of Epping, one of the most distant reaches of the London Underground, and the terminus of the Central Line. The only other settlement is the quasi-rural village of Theydon Bois (Boyes not Bwa) which sits between Loughton and Epping.
This is a classic outer London suburban seat, thoroughly middle-class for the most part, although there is a large post-war overspill council estate at Debden, on the far northern end of the conurbation. However like most such low-rise peripheral estates it has mostly been sold off and is owner-occupied these days, although with lower occupational and educational statistics, which contrasts strongly with Loughton to the south. Waltham Abbey also has a fair amount of rented housing and is much more working class than the rest of the seat. Chigwell is reputationally the home of London gangsters made good (with the bodies buried in the forest), and certainly contains many large detached houses. There has been a large influx of asian residents here - now well over 25% - as people move out from London. In fact between censuses there has been a substantial reduction in the white proportion in the constituency as a whole, something it shares with similar areas inside the Greater London boundary.
As a constituency it was created in 1974. The enormous Epping constituency was split between new Chingford and Harlow seats, with the small central area around Epping and Waltham Abbey linked with Chigwell, which had only been a seat on its own since 1955. Norman Tebbitt and Stan Newens who had shared the old marginal Epping seat in the 1960s, took the opportunity to move to the new seats. There have only been minor changes since. Locally the area is solidly Conservative. The former Labour vote in Debden has faded away, and they have no presence in Waltham Abbey either. Liberal Democrat support here is limited to Epping. Loughton has developed a hegemonic Residents party which wins every seat on the local council, both rich and poor alike, but not enough to threaten Conservative control. This doesn’t carry over to national elections, where this is another extremely safe Conservative seat, held until 2024 by Eleanor Laing, and left completely unchanged by the Boundary Commission. The previous MP was Steve Norris who fought Ken Livingstone in the first London mayoral election.
Unusually there was no Reform candidate in 2024, which gives us an idea of how things might have gone elsewhere without them. The swing to Labour was 15% - very close to average for seats won by Labour, but higher than the swing across the country as a whole. The new MP is Neil Hudson, displaced (a very long way) from Penrith & the Border. He was a vet prior to election.
Census data: Owner-occupied 69% (211/575 in England & Wales), private rented 16% (404th), social rented 15% (269th).
: White 81%(394th), Black 3%(167th), South Asian 7%(155th), Mixed 4%(116th), Other 5%(173rd)
: Managerial & professional 44% (144th), Routine & Semi-routine 19% (494th)
: Degree 34% (224th), Minimal qualifications 28% (259th)
: Students 6% (255th), Over 65: 18% (319th)
Boundaries : The seat is unchanged
| 2017 | % | 2019 | % | 2024 | % | |
| Conservative | 31,462 | 62.0 | 32,364 | 64.4 | 18,038 | 43.2 |
| Labour | 13,219 | 26.0 | 10,191 | 20.3 | 12,356 | 29.6 |
| Liberal Democrat | 2,884 | 5.7 | 5,387 | 10.7 | 5,268 | 12.6 |
| UKIP | 1,871 | 3.7 | ||||
| Green | 1,233 | 2.4 | 1,975 | 3.9 | 2,486 | 6.0 |
| Other | 110 | 0.2 | 351 | 0.7 | 3,605 | 8.6 |
| Majority | 18,243 | 35.9 | 22,173 | 44.1 | 5,682 | 13.6 |
