Newly planted tree saplings in protective tubes in a field in north London. Under the plans, local groups will be given new funding for restoring natural landscapes. Photograph: Jack Jango\/AlamyView image in fullscreenNewly planted tree saplings in protective tubes in a field in north London. Under the plans, local groups will be given new funding for restoring natural landscapes.<\/p>\n
Photograph: Jack Jango\/AlamyHalf a million trees to be planted in England in three years, says governmentExclusive: Environment secretary Angela Eagle to make pledge as part of efforts to protect against extreme weatherHalf a million trees will be planted across England in the next three years to protect against extreme weather, the environment secretary, Angela Eagle, will pledge on Wednesday morning.Mayors, local authorities, charities and grassroots groups will be given new funding and responsibilities for restoring natural landscapes such as wetlands, river edges and meadows, which can provide natural flood management and reduce the damage done by droughts.The \u00a379m package, to be set out in Eagle\u2019s speech to the Labour party conference in Liverpool, will include \u00a353m for tree-planting and \u00a326m for \u201clocal nature recovery strategies\u201d.This summer\u2019s drought showed the urgent need for more trees, and more protection of natural landscapes, Eagle is to say. \u201cIn areas where nature has been allowed to flourish, the ground held more water, and the droughts were less severe,\u201d she will tell the conference. \u201cOn streets where trees have been planted, the shade meant temperatures were lower. And when rain finally came, those same trees reduced the risk of floods. We all deserve access to the benefits that nature can bring.\u201dTrees can reduce air temperatures by 4C in cities, making heatwaves more bearable, while a single mature tree can intercept 15,000 litres of water a year, reducing flood and water run-off risks during storms. They can also halve noise pollution and absorb air pollution, and provide habitats for wildlife in towns and cities.Echoing the localism agenda championed by Andy Burnham, Eagle will tell the Labour party conference the UK must combine a focus on local communities with the need to make the whole country more resilient to the increasingly intense impacts of the global climate crisis.She will say that putting decision-making in the hands of those who know their communities best is the most effective way to improve nature and strengthen the UK against a changing climate.Craig Bennett, the chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said the plans were \u201cvery encouraging\u201d, and appeared to signal that Burnham would change the government\u2019s direction on nature.\u201cThe mood could not be more different from Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, who presented nature as a block to development,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will be very welcome.<\/p>\n
For a long time local authorities have been trying to help nature but did not have the power, money or political support. The Burnham government seems to have realised that nature is crucial to the country\u2019s future.\u201dRewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images showRead moreEngland has lost more than 90% of its wetlands over the last century. \u201cWe need to make Britain wet again,\u201d said Bennett. \u201cWe could have tens of thousands of new wetlands.\u201dRichard Benwell, the chief executive of the Wildlife and Countryside Link charity, said: \u201cInvesting in the critical nature infrastructure we need to protect businesses and communities makes good economic sense and good ecological sense, especially when investments are guided by locally agreed nature restoration plans. This is a good start towards Burnham\u2019s promise of the government getting ahead of long-term challenges, recognising nature\u2019s role in supporting our economy and adapting to climate change.\u201cThis should be followed by a commitment to rapidly scale up nature investment as part of the prime minister\u2019s 10-year plan, funded by businesses who will benefit, and by making sure polluters pay.\u201dThe government has faced sharp criticism in recent days over the management of payments to farmers, intended to help them protect nature on their land. Last Tuesday, the Sustainable Farming Incentive was opened at 10am for applications from farmers willing to undertake environmental improvements such as conserving wildlife habitats, growing trees and nurturing soil.But within six hours, the \u00a3253m pot was exhausted and many farmers were left disappointed.Bennett said farmers needed support to play their role in nature protection and fostering resilience to the climate crisis. \u201cWe need to stop thinking about this as just a farming budget, but as a national security and natural resilience budget,\u201d he said.Explore more on these topicsTrees and forestsAngela EagleClimate crisisnewsShareReuse this content<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newly planted tree saplings in protective tubes in a field in north London. Under the plans, local groups will be given new funding for restoring natural landscapes. Photograph: Jack Jango\/AlamyView image in fullscreenNewly planted tree\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}