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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress is being made on the Northern Forest scheme and (1) how many trees have been planted so far, (2) how many will be planted in each of the next five planting seasons, (3) in which local authorities or national parks they will be planted, and (4) how many trees will be planted in cities and other urban areas.

As part of the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government is providing £5.7 million to support the existing Northern Forest Partnership of the Community Forests and the Woodland Trust to accelerate develop the Northern Forest. This four-year kick-start investment will fund the planting of at least 1.8 million new trees across the Northern Forest by 2022.

1) In year one (2018/19) our investment funded the planting of 103,980 trees against a planting target of 100,000 trees.

2) Our investment is for four delivery years (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22). Over the remaining 3 years it will fund the planting of a further 1.7 million trees.

3) It will fund the planting of new trees in parts of the North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales and Peak District. The majority of planting will be in the counties of Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Humber. We do not have a breakdown for individual local authorities.

4) It will fund the planting of at least 300,000 trees in cities and other urban areas over four years (2018/19 – 2021/22). 55,360 trees were planted in urban areas in year one.