Environmental Targets (Woodland and Trees Outside Woodland) (England) Regulations 2022

Baroness Twycross Excerpts

Tuesday 24th January 2023 Grand Committee

Given that the Government will refresh their net-zero strategy in the next couple of months, what contribution will Defra make in light of the fact that it will not now produce the amount of carbon emissions savings it was hoping to achieve through the target, which was initially hoped to be around 18%, was then 17.5% and has now gone down to 16.5%? What else will it do to meet those carbon savings in the net-zero strategy? Will it upweight waste? It does not sound like that will change much, so what else will Defra produce given that it has brought the targets down so that they are not in line with what the Climate Change Committee has said is the balanced pathway to meet the targets which the Government have now legally agreed to?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for his introduction to this statutory instrument and declare an interest as London’s deputy mayor with responsibility for resilience. As it happens, I also used to work for my noble friend Lady Young; where I agree with her, it is because she is right, which she generally was when I worked for her.

It is right that the Government are setting legally binding targets for woodland cover and trees outside woodland. I think we can all agree that increasing woodland and trees is vital to this country’s future in the context of climate change. The commitment in this statutory instrument reflects the duty and acute need for active stewardship of our natural environment for future generations in relation to the duties under the Climate Change Act and the country’s target on net zero.

It is disappointing, as has been a key element of today’s discussion, that the proposed target has been reduced.. As my noble friend Lady Young said, this suggests complacency. In response to the previous SI, the Minister made a point about satisfaction that the targets set can be met. Nobody wants unreachable targets, as they become meaningless if everybody knows that they are unreachable, but we need them to be ambitious and not merely guaranteed to be met and ticked off as achieved.

We on these Benches support the principle of afforestation, for the purposes of both carbon sequestration and social, health and well-being benefits. Last summer, we saw significant harm and excess deaths as a result of the heatwave. Trees can play an important part in reducing the urban heat island effect. I agree with many of the concerns raised in the debate; I note the suggestion around the proposed planning framework and echo my noble friend Lady Young’s point that urban tree planting has considerable benefits, as seen in London. The noble Lord, Lord Roborough, noted the significantly higher levels of woodland and tree coverage in Germany and France. In these circumstances, we should definitely aim our targets a bit higher.

I have a few further points and a number of questions to which it would be useful to have responses from the Minister. The Woodland Trust estimates that

“We need to at least quadruple the current rate of woodland creation and increase the proportion of UK-grown native species to help tackle the effects of climate change and give nature a fighting chance of recovery.”


The key question for me is whether the Minister is confident that the targets the Government are putting in place are sufficient to meet this challenge. I note, as others have, that he has rejected the notion that the target should be 17.5%, which itself was insufficient, and arrived at 16.5% as the higher option was considered unfeasible. This is a considerably lower level of ambition than was first proposed and is lower than that proposed by the consultation responses, as was noted, although the Minister said that it is deliverable. This is a concern. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, that it would be good to understand the reasons and rationale behind this and be reassured that it is not merely because the Minister is confident that the lower target can be met.

My understanding is that the current regulatory regime does not require landowners to plant trees to meet the tree canopy and woodland cover target, but that the target is dependent on substantial landowner behaviour change. How are the Government planning to influence landowners to do this and how will they measure whether this behaviour change is happening? Some more detail on what interim targets will be put in place would be helpful, noting that this is a long-term target towards 2050. How will these targets be monitored effectively? At what point would the Minister consider mandating or incentivising change from landowners, rather than assuming that it will happen?

There is broad agreement that we need to ensure that we increase the cover of native trees, but I note that UK and Irish nurseries cannot currently supply sufficient numbers to meet the targets. What are the Government doing to ensure that UK and Irish nurseries can supply more native trees in future and how will they ensure that we do not overrely on coniferous woodland, to the detriment of nature and climate, in the effort to meet this target?

Clearly, monitoring progress will be key to ensuring that this target succeeds. What safeguards are the Government putting in place to ensure that the data collected allows for ongoing analysis? I appreciate that the Minister described quite a complex process in his introductory remarks, so a little more detail would be helpful.

Before concluding, I am unclear why this comes under the levelling-up agenda—it is obviously the theme of the week—as alluded to in Defra’s impact assessment. It appears to have been suggested simply because a reasonable proportion of the trees might be planted in the north-east. I can assume only that this relates to jobs, but there is information in some of the documents provided indicating that these may not be new jobs; they may just be changed jobs. However, if this relates to jobs, what are the Government doing to ensure that the skills pipeline supports the target, in relation to the skills required in both nurseries and forestry?

I will end on that point, but I am keen to stress that the target included in this statutory instrument cannot be a mere paper target. Through this discussion, we have understood that this is not a particularly ambitious target, so it must have the resources and commitment of this and future Governments to drive it through. I hope that we become more, rather than less, ambitious in future and I seek the Minister’s assurance that the Government truly understand and are committed to increasing woodland and tree cover.