Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the ornamental horticulture and landscaping industry’s potential to support the UK’s environmental targets.
Defra regularly meets with the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Group, who recently published their ‘Unlocking green growth: A plan from the ornamental horticulture & landscaping industry’. This ambitious report sets out the industry’s potential contributions to delivering the 25 Year Environment Plan, and how it can help to underwrite the environmental challenges facing the UK.
In the past year £1 million has been made available through the Tree Production Innovation Fund to encourage adoption of new technologies and ways of working, and a further £2.6 million has been made available in capital grants to support climate and disease resilience and expand nursery capacity. We are also exploring new data sharing practices to help better plan for supply and demand in the sector. This will support nurseries and seed suppliers to produce the right stock at the right time.
We will be publishing a public consultation on proposed long-term targets to be set under the Environment Act 2021. During the consultation we will be interested in hearing the views of all interested sectors, and the delivery of targets will require actions across the economy.