High Speed 2 Railway Line: Environment Protection
(asked on 20th July 2020) - View Source
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 protect the (a) environment and (b) woodlands in the vicinity of the High Speed Two route.
Answered by
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
High Speed Two (HS2) aims to be one of the most environmentally responsible infrastructure projects ever delivered in the UK.
The Government and HS2 Limited have committed to provide a range of tailored measures to compensate for its impacts, for example, planting more than 7 million new trees and shrubs, and creating over 900 hectares of new native woodland.
At least 400km of hedgerows will be created or translocated. On top of this, the Government has committed £7 million in establishing the HS2 Woodland Fund, helping landowners within 25 miles of the railway to create and restore woodland. The first £1.6 million of the Fund has already been allocated, supporting around 115ha of new native woodland and around 160ha of plantations on ancient woodland sites.