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 increase the rate of tree planting in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Staffordshire.

Working with the Devolved Administrations, we are committed to significantly increasing tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025, in line with the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations. We announced a £640 million Nature for Climate Fund to help drive up planting rates in England.

To support this, we have opened a consultation on an England Tree Strategy and welcome responses from the forestry sector and wider public. Responses will help us to understand what more could be done to encourage even more tree planting. Within this we hope to empower local communities, generating local support for, and where possible participation in, afforestation at a new scale.