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 will take to meet the habitat restoration targets set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan; and if he will make a statement.

The Environment Act 2021 introduced a number of policies that will support the restoration of habitat. Biodiversity net gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities will work together to drive action, including to create or restore habitats that enable wildlife to recover and thrive, while conservation covenants will help secure habitat for the long term. LNRSs will provide the spatial framework for the Nature Recovery Network, which will guide creation, restoration and connectivity of habitats and sites to create mosaics of wildlife-rich habitat; and incentivise private partnerships.

The Nature for Climate Fund provides £750 million for the creation, restoration and management of woodland and peatland habitats. The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is estimated to deliver 0.6mha of habitat creation and restoration within & outside SSSIs. We set a target to raise at least £500 million in private finance to support nature’s recovery every year by 2027 in England, rising to more than £1 billion by 2030. This includes investment in protected sites and other landscape-scale action through delivery of the Nature Recovery Network.

The Environment Act also requires a new legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, in addition to at least one other long-term target for biodiversity. These world leading targets will drive wide-ranging actions to deliver nature recovery. We know that to meet them we will need large-scale habitat creation and restoration and that by improving connectivity we will maximise the benefits of newly created and restored habitat.