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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government has made progress on tree planting targets for (a) the Northern Forest (b) the White Rose Forest and (c) in York.

We continue to work with the Woodland Trust and the Community Forest Trust to support the planting of more than 50 million trees between Liverpool and Hull as part of the Northern Forest initiative. The 50 million target is not a Government target but will contribute to the Government’s commitment to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament.

As set out in our new England Trees Action Plan, we are working with charities, landowners, and local communities to increase tree planting across England. This includes partnerships such as the Northern Forest, which we kick-started with £5.7 million of investment in 2018, and the Community Forests Network, with whom we aim to plant over 6000 hectares of new woodlands by 2025, supported by investment from our £640 million Nature for Climate Fund.

The Northern Forest stretches from Liverpool and Chester to Hull, through Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield. Four of the twelve Community Forests are located in the Northern Forest – White Rose Forest, which covers Leeds city region and North and West Yorkshire; the Mersey Forest, which covers Merseyside and North Cheshire; Heywood, which covers Kingston upon Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire; and City of Trees, which covers Greater Manchester.

Our Nature for Climate Fund-supported programme of tree planting by the Community Forests, including the White Rose Forest, received £12.1 million funding last year and will see many more trees planted across these areas over this parliament. The table below shows the number of trees planted between 2018-2021 with Government funding. Other non-Government funded trees are also being delivered across the Northern Forest by the Northern Forest Partnership.

In addition to this, we have extended the Urban Tree Challenge Fund, providing up to £6 million over the next two years to support planting of large trees in our towns and cities. We have also launched the £2.7 million Local Authority Treescapes Fund which encourages applications establishing more trees in non-woodland settings such as parklands, urban areas, beside roads and footpaths.