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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage the resumption of tree planting as lockdown restrictions due to the covid-19 outbreak are eased.

Lockdown started towards the end of the 2019/2020 tree planting season and under normal conditions we would not expect planting to start again until the autumn.

The Forestry Commission and the Rural Payments Agency have remained open for new woodland creation applications and continued to process those applications subject to the restrictions imposed by Government guidance on COVID-19.

The following schemes have remained open for woodland creation applications: Countryside Stewardship, Woodland Carbon Fund, Woodland Carbon Guarantee, Woodland Creation Planning Grant and the HS2 Woodland Fund. The second application window of the Urban Tree Challenge Fund opened during lockdown and was subsequently extended to give applicants more time to apply.

Claims for tree planting under existing grant agreements have continued to be paid, with additional measures being put in place by the Forestry Commission and the Rural Payments Agency to support claimants under lockdown restrictions.

Officials have remained in regular and close contact with the forestry sector, which has continued to operate, where and when it has been safe to do so, throughout lockdown. For example, tree nurseries have responded by amending working practices to ensure social distancing can be maintained while ensuring that plants are available for next year’s tree planting season.