Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help increase access to nature for people living in urban areas.

The Government is committed to ensuring everyone lives within a 15-minute walk of a green or blue space. Currently 80% of people are within this range, with this figure at 78% in urban areas. We have set out how we will make access more equitable and remove barriers to access in our Environmental Improvement Plan.

This includes progressing plans to deliver nine new National River Walks across England, one in each region, to enhance access to nature. The Mersey Valley Way, which runs from Stockport into Manchester, will be the first of those nine new walks. We will identify locations for the next tranche of river walks through a competition that will be launched before the end of 2026.

The Government is also investing £1 billion in tree planting and support to the forestry sector over this parliament. Access to nature is an important part of our work both within the public forestry estate and more broadly including with the 15 Community Forests which bring trees closer to where people live. Last year (2024/25) the Community Forests created over 2,200 hectares of new woodland, with 70% of woodlands planted having full or partial public access and 8% of schemes being within the most deprived areas of the country.