Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 14
Third Report - Tree planting
Published 21 Mar 2022
Paragraph 91
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Tree Planting and Woodlands All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The application and approvals process for tree planting is seen as too bureaucratic by land-owning and forestry organisations. While we understand the importance of not weakening the environmental controls, there appears to be a consensus that it is possible to speed up the approval process by improving administration, guidance and advice. While the Government has provided additional resources for the Forestry Commission and Natural England, it needs to ensure that funding keeps pace with the likely increase in application numbers and requests for advice and support. We recommend that Defra consult on the criteria and process for its review of approvals regulations, which it should aim to conclude by December 2022. We further recommend that Defra set out what additional resources from the last Spending Review will be used to enable the Forestry Commission and Natural England to meet the additional work arising from the Government’s planting ambition and provide the analysis it has undertaken to assure itself that the planned funding is sufficient.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Third Report - Tree planting (HC 356), paragraph 91, 21 March 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 June 2022 (deadline 21 May 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government 'welcomes the recommendations' in the Committee's report and says that in many cases it 'has already taken action, or is planning action' to address them.
- On annual targets, it sets a planned England planting profile rising from 2,500 hectares in 2021/22 to 7,500 hectares in 2024/25, which it says is back loaded to allow new grants to become embedded.
- On the Tenancy Working Group, it says "We agree with the recommendation" and has included tree planting by tenant farmers within the group's remit.
- On Wykeham nursery, it gives no commitment to review the closure. It says the decision was "carefully considered" and will not affect tree planting ambitions, and that the site is available to lease by competitive tender.
- On seasonal worker visas, it says 30,000 visas will be available in 2022, to be kept under review with potential to increase by 10,000 "if necessary". It says a nine-month visa "runs counter to the scheme being seasonal only".