Water Companies: Fines Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lord Roborough
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Water Companies: Fines
Lord Roborough Excerpts(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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Lord Roborough (Con)
My Lords, to follow my noble friend’s question, the Government have announced that water company fines will help fund environmental restoration, including 100,000 new trees. To put that in context, a block that size would be only 50 hectares and cost £200,000. That seems a token effort. Will the Minister commit to more ambitious targets for the use of these fines in environmental restoration and tree-planting? I refer the House to my interest in developing new forests.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The Government have very ambitious plans for tree-planting, including three national forests, one of which has already begun planting and two are progressing well, so we are very keen. We understand the impact that trees can have in mitigating both climate change and flooding. We absolutely want to work with farmers to ensure that we can help and support them to plant trees in order to support their ambitions.