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

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the amount of woodland that will be lost by (1) 2030, and (2) 2050, in terms of (a) hectares, and (b) percentage.

A small amount of woodland is lost each year to development and for the restoration of priority habitat from woodland. We have taken this into account in estimating the area of new tree canopy and woodland cover that will need to be planted to meet the statutory target. The tree and woodland cover target is a net target and our pathway assumes that new planting will need to account for around 9,000 hectares of woodland loss by 2030 and a total of around 20,000 hectares by 2050, based on trends over recent years. This is equivalent to 0.7% and 1.5% of current woodland cover in England.