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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Benyon on 21 March (HL6421), how many grants they made to private landowners for support with the costs described in (1) 2022, (2) 2021, (3) 2020, and (4) 2019.

The Government provides grants for private landowners, to help with costs associated with ecological surveys and felling roadside ash with ash dieback, through the Tree Health Grant Pilot. This scheme provides financial and technical support to facilitators to coordinate the removal of dangerous ash trees along roads and public paths for groups of landowners. Support covers the costs and administration of ecological surveys, felling licences, protected species licences (if needed) and road closure permissions, as well as restocking.

Pilots are running in the North West, the South East, London and the West Midlands and landowners are eligible if they have ash with ash dieback along roads or paths. The pilot launched in August 2021 and the full scheme is expected to be launched Nationwide in 2025. The numbers of grants made under this pilot for ash dieback so far are:

• 2022: 4 grants, totalling £157,846.54

Following this low uptake, Defra is working with the Forestry Commission and the Tree Council to review and improve the provision for ash with ash dieback along roads and paths. Defra has also brought together local authorities in the pilot areas to provide feedback on the ash offer and how it can be improved to better suit their needs. Following an independent evaluation report, which included several recommendations from local authorities, Defra has amended the ash offer and this improved offer will be launched across the pilot areas in April.

Local authorities can also apply for funds to restore landscapes ecologically degraded by ash dieback and other pressures through the Local Authority Treescapes Fund (LATF), also launched in 2021. Although local authorities must lead applications to this fund, they are able to work with private landowners and other organisations to deliver recovery planting. Since 2021, over £15m has been awarded through this fund, although the number of private landowners receiving funding is determined by the local authorities administering funding, and Defra do not hold data on this. The grant is currently open for 2023 applications. The numbers of grants made to local authorities under LATF so far are:

• 2021: 42 grants, totalling £8.5m
• 2022: 35 grants, totalling £6.7m