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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure that local tree and plant growers are utilised in outdoor public projects in urban areas to help improve air quality.

We know that trees outside woodlands, including trees in urban areas, parks, and along roads and footpaths can provide many environmental benefits for people.

There is strong evidence that healthy, well-chosen and well placed urban trees can provide a large range of benefits valuable to the economy and to people. This includes a relatively small but beneficial impact on urban air quality. However, current evidence suggests that trees would not be enough to solve the air quality problems at a city scale. 

Through the Nature for Climate Fund we are boosting the numbers of trees near to where people live, investing millions of pounds in tree planting and in the skills to incorporate trees in the right places to generate maximum benefits.

Additional funding is being provided to support tree growers and seed suppliers across England, to help meet the growing demand for trees. We have developed capital and innovation grants for the sector that will encourage the adoption of mechanisation and automation, and help enhance the quantity, quality, diversity and biosecurity of domestic tree production.

Alongside this, Defra has been working closely with the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Group who have published an action plan 'Unlocking green growth: A plan from the ornamental horticulture & landscaping industry'. This sets out the industry's potential contributions to tackling some of the environmental challenges facing the UK, including through the use of a greater proportion of British-produced plants and trees in public sector projects, and the incorporation of more community green spaces within the urban planning process. Where Government can help, we will work with the sector to help it take advantage of the opportunities outlined in the action plan.