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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is providing support to Bristol City Council for (a) managing and (b) increasing the overall population of trees in and surrounding Bristol.

Our England Trees Action Plan (ETAP), published in May 2021, sets out the long-term, generational vision for trees and forestry to 2050. ETAP details how we will treble tree planting rates in England by the end of this Parliament, contributing to 30,000 hectares of new trees per year across the UK by 2025. The Plan is supported by the £675 million Nature for Climate Fund.

Defra supports local authorities’ tree planting through access to several of the Nature for Climate Fund grant schemes including:

• up to £4.4 million available to local communities through the Local Authority Treescapes Fund (LATF) to plant and establish new trees, which includes a c.£250,000 Bristol scheme;
• the ground-breaking Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund, which will have a total value of just under £8 million to provide financial support to local authorities to increase their capacity and specialist skills;
• confirming £6 million over the next two years for the Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF) with a target to support the planting of 150,000 large trees in towns and cities across England;
• Defra contributing towards the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund, which will create over 100 new parks to ensure access to green space in urban areas.

The UTCF and LATF schemes’ combined aim is to not only add, but also maintain hundreds of thousands of trees in our towns and cities. The ETAP also further details how HM Government will ensure the protection and management of trees to deliver more for society, nature, the climate, and the economy.