Planning reform is high on the government’s agenda and must deliver the homes and infrastructure the country needs. These reforms are a vital opportunity to make good on environmental commitments to better protect irreplaceable habitats such as ancient woodland and veteran trees. The last parliament had cross-party consensus on this issue and we must act on it. Nature is not a barrier to critical infrastructure; it is critical infrastructure.
Better protection for ancient woods and trees
Over 1,000 ancient woods are under threat from development. Ancient woodland covers only 2.5 per cent of the UK and we can’t afford to lose any more. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) says that loss of ancient woodland and veteran trees to development should be “wholly exceptional”, but it is unclear what this actually means. Clarifying this as part of reforms will help to ensure that the development we need happens in the right places and safeguards our natural heritage.
This country is blessed with an extraordinary array of ancient and veteran trees. These living legends define the forests, landscapes, parks and streets they sit within. But many of these giants are threatened by development too. Like ancient woodland, they need proper protection, and their stewardship must be properly resourced. We need environmental governance bodies to combine their expertise to develop UK-wide standards of protection for ancient trees. Planning reforms also provide opportunity to integrate more trees into development. Doing so will help deliver on the government’s manifesto commitment to plant millions of trees and Environment Act targets. It is vital that this is done in a way which maximises the benefits for nature and people, and thereby delivers the greatest value for money. Doing so will deliver genuinely sustainable development and shape places where people will want to live, work, invest and spend leisure time.
The Northern Forest
Projects such as the Northern Forest are already showing the way forward. Launched in 2018, the Northern Forest is an ambitious programme of transformational change, delivered through a partnership between the Woodland Trust, four of England’s Community Forests and the Community Forest Trust.
The Northern Forest will see over 50 million new trees established, across 10,000 square miles of land, stretching from Liverpool to Hull. It has widespread regional support, including from our metro mayors and local authority leaders.
Since the programme started almost eight million trees have been established, with around half of these through the creation of new woodlands. The natural benefits of the Northern Forest have been valued at providing £43m of economic uplift every year, and, as a consequence of planting, to date over 300,000 households are now less than ten minutes’ walk away from a publicly accessible woodland. Find out more here.
Securing the benefits of trees for all – tree equity
There is widespread awareness of the benefits of urban trees and woods for people’s health and well-being. However, the unequal distribution of trees in our towns and cities means that some communities – and most likely those who would benefit most – are losing out. Everyone should have access to the benefits of trees, and to ensure this is the case we need to find out where the disparities lie. This is where tree equity comes in. Tree Equity Score UK is a new data-driven tool for measuring and reducing inequalities in urban tree cover in towns and cities in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It uses methods developed in the US, by the non-profit organisation American Forests, to create a score out of 100 for thousands of neighbourhoods in all major towns and cities. As well as the score, each neighbourhood is given a rating of high, moderate or low “tree equity”. The lower the tree equity score, the greater the need for tree canopy cover and the greater climate, health and socio-economic priority. An online map displays this visually. Higher-priority neighbourhoods are coloured orange, and lower-priority neighbourhoods green.
The tool has been adapted for the UK by a partnership of the Woodland Trust, the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare and American Forests, with funding from Salesforce. Tree equity scores are now available for over 35,000 neighbourhoods in the UK, covering roughly 80 per cent of the UK population. The tool uses new tree canopy data from Google and other data sets relating to heat, air pollution, health and socioeconomics using the census and indices of deprivation. Tree Equity Score UK highlights inequitable access to trees. It measures how well the benefits of urban tree canopy are reaching the community, especially socio-economically deprived, low-income communities and those that are disproportionately affected by extreme heat, pollution and other environmental hazards. Using these criteria, Tree Equity Score UK can be a decision-support tool for urban planning that ensures investment is made in planting and protecting trees in the places that need it the most.
Tree Equity Score UK can be found here.
