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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of trees.

Trees are at the forefront of the Government’s plans to achieve net zero by 2050, whilst also helping achieve many other environmental and economic outcomes.

Our England Trees Action Plan (ETAP), published in May 2021, sets out the long-term, generational vision for trees and forestry to 2050. The Plan details how we will treble tree planting rates in England by the end of this Parliament, contributing to 30,000 hectares of new trees per year across the UK by 2025. The Plan is supported by the £675 million Nature for Climate Fund. We have already:

• Launched the England Woodland Creation Offer, a major new grant scheme supporting tree planting and woodland creation, with over £15 million available this year alone.
• Established three new Community Forests with over 1,000 hectares of new woodland being planted across the total 13 Community Forests since 2020.
• Significantly invested to build and enhance our nursery capacity to ensure we have sufficient high quality, bio-secure tree stocks that can help us meet our ambitions.