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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of the Nature for Climate Fund has been spent; and on which projects.

There is over £650 million available through the Nature for Climate Fund (NCF) to support tree planting, woodland creation and management until 2025.

For 2022/23 alone we have made available:

• over £25 million through the England Woodland Creation Offer
• £9.4 million of additional funding to support tree nurseries, and development of workforce and skills to support the creation of woodland
• £44.5 million NCF Year 3 funding for Woodland Creation Partnerships and Community Forests
• £7.8 million for a new Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund to build local authority capacity to plan new woodlands (NCF+ funding)
• £2 million to support the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ Levelling Up Parks Fund
• £12.8 million to the Peatland Restoration Grant Scheme.

Over £14 million is available through the Local Authority Treescapes Fund and Urban Tree Challenge Fund which allow both local authorities and community groups to access funds for new tree-planting projects. These have just reopened and we would encourage local authorities and community groups to apply and support tree planting in their local areas.

The NCF is already providing over £33 million to restore 20,000 hectares of peatlands, with a further bidding round in 2023.The NCF Discovery Grant has also awarded over £5 million to 15 projects across England, stretching from Dorset to Northumberland, enabling the foundation work needed to prepare for the restoration of over 51,000 ha of peatland.