(13 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberI thank my hon. Friend for that invitation. I shall certainly make the journey to York to hear what his constituents have to say, and I hope that Ministers go out and listen to what the country has to say on the matter.
The hon. Lady mentioned the Woodland Trust. Does she agree with its chief executive, who told Radio 4 last week that:
“Public ownership is not delivering full protection…it is not as simple as saying that public ownership is better”?
Does she agree that different forests need different types of ownership structure?
Different forests are already under different sorts of ownership—the public forest estate makes up 18% of England’s woodlands. The question is what the nation values and for what we are prepared to pay.