Parliamentary constituency boundaries change

Parliamentary constituency boundaries are changing for UK general elections.

Changes are being made because:

  • Local population sizes have changed since boundaries were last agreed
  • The government wants constituencies to have roughly the same number of electors

The Boundary Commissions for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each published their final recommendations in June 2023 following 3 rounds of public consultation.

For more information on the review and its recommendations for England:

How the recommendations affect Epping Forest

The district of Epping Forest is split between 3 parliamentary constituencies:

  1. Epping Forest constituency
  2. Brentwood and Ongar constituency
  3. Harlow constituency

1 – Epping Forest constituency includes 21 wards entirely within the district of Epping Forest:

  1. Broadley Common, Epping Upland and Nazeing
  2. Buckhurst Hill East
  3. Buckhurst Hill West
  4. Chigwell Row
  5. Chigwell Village
  6. Epping Hemnall
  7. Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common
  8. Grange Hill
  9. Loughton Alderton
  10. Loughton Broadway
  11. Loughton Fairmead
  12. Loughton Forest
  13. Loughton Roding
  14. Loughton St. John’s
  15. Loughton St. Mary’s
  16. Theydon Bois
  17. Waltham Abbey High Beach
  18. Waltham Abbey Honey Lane
  19. Waltham Abbey North East
  20. Waltham Abbey Paternoster
  21. Waltham Abbey South West

2 – Brentwood and Ongar constituency includes the following 7 Epping Forest district wards:

  1. Chipping Ongar, Greensted and Marden Ash
  2. High Ongar, Willingale and The Rodings
  3. Lambourne
  4. Moreton and Fyfield
  5. North Weald Bassett
  6. Passingford
  7. Shelley

3 – Harlow constituency includes the following 4 Epping Forest district wards:

  1. Hastingwood, Matching and Sheering Village
  2. Lower Nazeing
  3. Lower Sheering
  4. Roydon

Recommendations

The Boundary Commission for England has recommended that for UK general elections, that all of the Hastingwood, Matching and Sheering Village ward should become part of Harlow constituency.

No other Epping Forest wards are affected by Boundary Commission for England recommendations.

The changes come into force when the government drafts an Order containing recommendations of all 4 Parliamentary Boundary Commissions, and the Order is approved by the Privy Council. The new constituencies will be used for the next general election following that date. Existing constituencies will be used for any by-elections before the next general election.

The above details are based on the current district wards, although these wards are set to change for the elections in May 2024, due to an electoral review of Epping Forest by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

Following the completion of the review, there has been a reduction in the number of members from 58 to 54 and a reduction in Wards from 32 to 18.

Further information about the review can be found at the Local Government Boundary Commission – Epping Forest website.

More information