UK government must get its act together, says Confor

“This report says the UK government must ‘get its act together’ on tree planting – and the industry agrees,” said Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor, the forestry and wood trade body.

“Forestry and wood processing employs well over 50,000 people and delivers economic benefits of £2bn each year to the UK – but it needs confidence in the UK government to grow further.

“That confidence starts with the target – 30,000ha of new woodland in the UK by 2024. At the moment, we are not even planting half of that – and 80% is in Scotland.

“The Westminster government must set a specific target for England, not hide behind a UK target that shares responsibility with the devolved administrations, which were not consulted on the UK target in the first place,” added Mr Goodall.

“It is extremely difficult to secure permission to plant large wood-producing forests that are so desperately needed. For too long, the important economic reasons to plant trees and manage woodland – and sustaining those benefits with income from sales of wood – has been ignored in the delivery of public policy in England.

"Supplies of timber are under fierce pressure as global demand rises rapidly and the UK needs to take more responsibility for producing its own – to support rural businesses and deliver on its climate change ambitions.

“The Climate Change Committee clearly identified that greater tree planting and wood use is vital to the UK meeting net-zero, but the UK government is failing to grasp the opportunity.

“This is the second EFRA committee report in five years to highlight the lack of progress with tree planting. The last report was ignored and the country lost the chance then to put things right.  The government must learn the lessons of its past failures and do things differently.

“There is a lot in this report – and Confor will continue to work with forestry minister Lord Goldsmith and Defra officials to implement its recommendations and get tree planting back on track. However, time is passing quickly and we need more urgency and more action on the ground. Future generations will thank us if the government steps in now and acts decisively to address the loss of trees and timber in England.”