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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with national park authorities on private investment into English national parks.

HMG's 25 Year Environment Plan is clear that the right mix of public and private funding and financing for projects that protect and enhance nature will be crucial to the successful delivery of our ambitious environmental policy agenda. As part of the government response to the Landscapes Review (2019), Defra is supporting protected landscapes to build capacity and create a pipeline of investment-ready nature recovery projects in protected landscapes, including through the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund.

DEFRA is working with the national umbrella organisations for National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and National Parks Partnerships to support their existing collaborations with commercial partners such as Palladium under the Revere initiative.

Alongside this DEFRA is also supporting local farmers through the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme. This has seen £11m in the first year of the programme invested into protected landscapes in England to support projects delivering for climate, nature, people and place.