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 had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of increasing funding for the creation of habitats designed to maintain and grow populations of certain species.

The Nature for Climate Fund provides £750 million for the creation, restoration and management of woodland and peatland habitats. The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is estimated to deliver 0.6mha of habitat creation and restoration within & outside SSSIs. We have also set a target to raise at least £500 million in private finance to support nature’s recovery every year by 2027 in England, rising to more than £1 billion by 2030. This includes investment in protected sites and other landscape-scale action through delivery of the Nature Recovery Network.

Across the Countryside Stewardship scheme, there are a range of actions to create, manage and restore habitats which are beneficial to a broad range of species including actions like establishing nectar flower mixes, building beetle banks, and managing species-rich grassland. Our new Environmental Land Management schemes will also pay farmers and land managers for environmentally sustainable actions, support local nature recovery and deliver landscape and ecosystem recovery, all of which will help us to recover species and increase wildlife-rich habitat.