State of Climate and Nature

Debate between Mary Creagh and Pippa Heylings

Monday 13th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mary Creagh]

I always like to go and see trees being planted, and my hon. Friend is right to talk about the importance of trees, both for shading our streets and as part of the three new national forests, two of which we have already announced. That is why we have more than doubled the grant for trees outside woodland through the Tree Council. It has gone up from £1 million in the last financial year to £2.5 million this year. Crucially, however, we need the right trees in the right place for the right reason, and the trees that will survive to 2100 are not the same trees that our mums and dads were planting in our back gardens.

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

I declare an interest as the chair of the local nature recovery all-party parliamentary group. As Britain endures another summer of extreme heat, droughts and devastating wildfires, this nature and climate statement is crucial, and I only wish that those on the Conservative Benches felt the same about it. I welcome the focus in the 30 by 30 delivery plan on the network of local nature recovery strategies, because they tackle climate change, improve resilience and hit our nature targets, but we need more than a plan, a map and warm words. We need a commitment to make it work in practice, including through weight in planning and public funding to leverage private finance—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. The hon. Lady really does need to get to a question. There is a really important piece of legislation still to come and this statement will finish at 6.40 pm, so many Members are going to be disappointed unless questions are very brief.