Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to increase rates of tree-planting and urban greening in metropolitan areas.

We are committed to increasing tree planting and will set out policies to achieve this in the England Tree Strategy, including planting and protecting trees in and around urban areas, which are vital to creating healthy places to live. We are already delivering on this through:

• £80m of charity-led projects funded through the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, the first round of which supported a wide range of projects to protect, restore and connect people with nature, including a national street tree sponsorship scheme and tree planting around the NHS estate.
• £10m Urban Tree Challenge Fund, supporting planting of up to 134,000 trees, including 20,000 street trees.
• £12.1m investment in England’s ten Community Forests to create high quality, accessible woodlands around towns and cities.
• £2.5m to pilot innovative means to grow trees outside woods, in partnership with Local Authorities.

This complements wider support for urban greening through:

• Creation of a Nature Recovery Network, connecting wildlife-rich places across our towns, cities and countryside.
• Development of a National Framework of Green Infrastructure Standards to help local authorities, developers and communities to improve greening provision.
• Designing and investing in healthy places to live and work through the forthcoming National Model Design Code, Towns Fund and new £4bn Levelling Up Fund.