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 to meet its target to create 30,000 hectares of new woodland each year from May 2024.

After the Nature for Climate Programme ends, the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) and Woodland Creation Planning Grant (WCPG) will transition to become part of the Countryside Stewardship scheme – one of the new environmental land management (ELM) schemes. We will take a phased approach to the transition of EWCO and WCPG into the ELM schemes to ensure there is no gap in offering grants to applicants for woodland creation. The future Countryside Stewardship woodland creation offer will largely mirror the EWCO offer.