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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to plant trees in the Peak District.

As part of the 25 Year Environment Plan, we are investing £5.7 million to support the existing partnership of the Community Forests and the Woodland Trust to accelerate and further develop the Northern Forest. Specifically, our funding will support the planting of 1.8 million new trees by 2022 across the Northern Forest, including in the parts of the Peak District which are located within its boundary, and help the Northern Forest partnership towards their long-term target of 50 million new trees planted over 25 years.

The Government’s support for woodland creation includes the recently launched Woodland Carbon Guarantee, in addition to the existing Countryside Stewardship, Woodland Carbon Fund, Woodland Creation Planning Grant and the Urban Tree Challenge Fund. These grants are available to local authorities, land managers and community led organisations wherever they are in the country. We are working to increase the uptake of grant schemes and strongly encourage eligible organisations to do so.