MP calls for 'emergency tree plans' to tackle climate change

The Conservative Party's election manifesto committed the Government to reach "an additional 75,000 acres of trees a year" by the end of the next Parliament.

Tory backbencher Jason McCartney, MP for Colne Valley, said more trees need to be planted to tackle climate change.

During environment questions, he told MPs: "We need to get local councils writing emergency tree plans identifying land for tree planting.

"And we also need to ensure that developments, when they come forward from housing developers, include a minimum of 30 per cent tree canopy cover."

Responding, Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers said: "Changes to the planning system should incentivise investment in tree planting and nature.

"It is also the case that programmes like the Urban Tree Challenge fund could provide a great opportunity for local authorities to play their part in delivering this tree-planting effort."

Conservative Richard Graham, MP for Gloucester, called for an independent assessment to take place to look at how many trees could feasibly be planted.

He added: "There is a risk in all of this that however many thousands of trees we plant in our constituencies somebody will always say that 'we should have done much more'."

Labour's shadow climate change minister Alan Whitehead said that "billions of trees" need to be planted in Britain, not just millions as the Government is proposing.