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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking steps to use the Government's tree planting programme to help tackle down-stream flooding.

Tree planting along rivers, as well as woodland creation across hill slopes in the wider catchment, can help slow water flow and temporarily store water as part of natural flood management.

The England Woodland Creation Offer provides financial support for tree planting and incentivises woodland creation that reduces flood risk through supplementary payments.

The ‘Woodlands for Water’ project, supported by Defra, has been providing targeted facilitation to support landowners to access tree planting grants to support the creation of woodland along rivers, which can improve water quality, manage flood risks and boost biodiversity.