Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to update paragraph 118 of the National Planning Policy Framework to improve protection for woods and trees.

Paragraph 118 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides strong protection for irreplaceable habitats such as ancient woodland and veteran trees.

We are consulting on placing our policy on ancient woodland and veteran trees alongside other national policies, for example Green Belt, which the government regards as providing a strong reason to restrict development when preparing plans, or which indicate that development should be restricted when making decisions on planning applications.

The consultation closes on 2 May, and is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fixing-our-broken-housing-market-consultation.