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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has plans to develop a national plan for inner city trees.

In November 2018, the Secretary of State announced that we will launch a national Tree Strategy for England. The Tree Strategy will set out the Government’s vision for the sector for the years to come and will aim to cover both rural and urban areas. The Strategy will set out how we intend to use a natural capital approach to forestry to maximise the benefits trees can provide such as carbon sequestration, increasing biodiversity and improving water and air quality.

We aim to publish the Tree Strategy in 2020 following a broad and open-ended consultation to maximise sectoral engagement and gauge ambition outside of Government.