Boris Johnson’s tree-planting pledge to cost £15bn Landowners say grants must be doubled if they are17 Mar 2021 09:02
Boris Johnson’s tree-planting pledge to cost £15bn
Landowners say grants must be doubled if they are to meet the prime minister’s ambition of 30 million trees a year
Boris Johnson’s pledge to plant 30 million trees a year could cost taxpayers £15bn over three decades, with most of the cash going to big landowners and farmers.
The money would be needed to pay the owners of land first to plant trees and then to maintain them, says the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents the owners.
In a submission that includes the first costings for the prime minister’s tree ambition, the association will tell ministers they must double public payments for woodland care from £80 to £160 an acre before landowners will do as Johnson asks. The calculations, equivalent to 40p per tree per year, are supported by independent experts. Boris Johnson’s pledge to plant 30 million trees a year could cost taxpayers £15bn over three decades, with most of the cash going to big landowners and farmers.
The money would be needed to pay the owners of land first to plant trees and then to maintain them, says the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents the owners.
In a submission that includes the first costings for the prime minister’s tree ambition, the association will tell ministers they must double public payments for woodland care from £80 to £160 an acre before landowners will do as Johnson asks. The calculations, equivalent to 40p per tree per year, are supported by independent experts.Boris Johnson’s pledge to plant 30 million trees a year could cost taxpayers £15bn over three decades, with most of the cash going to big landowners and farmers.
The money would be needed to pay the owners of land first to plant trees and then to maintain them, says the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents the owners.
In a submission that includes the first costings for the prime minister’s tree ambition, the association will tell ministers they must double public payments for woodland care from £80 to £160 an acre before landowners will do as Johnson asks. The calculations, equivalent to 40p per tree per year, are supported by independent experts. It means that instead of getting about 20p per tree annually for 10 years, as at present, owners would get 40p a year for three decades. This would pay for planting a mix of conifers and broadleaf trees to raise Britain’s woodland cover from 13% of the country to 19%, locking up carbon and combating climate change.
“People are not planting enough trees because it costs too much,” said Mark Bridgeman, president of the CLA, whose 31,000 members own or manage half the rural land in England and Wales.
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