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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to set targets for substituting domestic wood production for imports as the forest area is expanded in the UK.

By delivering our England Trees Action Plan we aim to at least treble planting rates in England, supporting our manifesto aim to increase planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of the parliament.

Planting and establishing more trees and woodlands will play an important role in supporting the green economy, levelling up rural areas and creating thousands of new jobs. Using UK grown timber can reduce our carbon footprint from imports and reduce emissions by replacing carbon-intensive materials.

Our England Trees Action Plan includes measures to encourage both supply and demand for UK grown timber, including a new Forestry Innovation Fund which will provide financial support to develop innovative timber products, and use of procurement policies to increase public demand for sustainably sourced timber.