Minutes of the APPG meeting 21 October 2025
Attendees
Parliamentary: Alex Mayer MP (Chair, Lab., Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard), Phil Brickell MP (Lab., Bolton West), John Whitby (Lab., Derbyshire Dales), Josh Newbury (Lab., Cannock), Sarah Dyke MP (Vice Chair, Lib Dem., Glastonbury and Somerton), Gideon Amos MP (Lib Dem., Taunton & Wellington), representative of Roz Savage MP (Lib Dem., South Cotswolds), Baroness Young of Old Scone (Vice Chair, Lab.), Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Lib Dem.).
Woodland Trust: James Cooper, Scott Blance, Richard O’Callaghan, Nicole Hillier, Julia Foster (City of Doncaster Council), Dr Emma Gilmartin (Arboricultural Association)
Apologies: Toby Perkins MP, Anna Gelderd MP, Manuela Perteghella MP, Ellie Chowns MP, Baron Hall of Birkenhead, Lord Carrington.
Minutes
The Chair opened the 10th anniversary of the APPG for Woods & Trees, before handing over to Dr James Cooper to reflect on 10 years in Parliament. Dr Cooper listed some of the achievements that the APPG had made over the previous decade and the improvements made in improving parliamentary understanding of the importance of woods and trees. He then linked this to the ongoing and future work of the APPG and how this will be maintained in the coming years.
Following this, the Chair then opened the main agenda item on the role of aftercare in establishing trees in new build housing estates. Scott Blance from the Woodland Trust set the scene around challenges for aftercare, with a specific focus on the challenges arising in the planning system, and the additional stresses created by a changing climate. He concluded his introduction by recommending that the Government leverage new town development as a way to manage green space more effectively, drawing on some recent recommendations in the New Towns Taskforce report, and also recommended strengthening the wording in the National Planning Policy Framework around tree aftercare.
Emma Gilmartin expanded on this introduction by providing an industry perspective on the challenges of aftercare. She emphasised the need to improve data collection but that the data that was available suggested that planning conditions relating to tree aftercare are not implemented, monitored or enforced. This is leading to unnecessarily high rates of failure which are easily avoidable with the right changes in place. She recommended that the Government mandate 3-5 year aftercare periods in national planning policy and that the tree planting and aftercare contracts for new build housing estates should be bundled, to create greater accountability and responsibility in the supply chain.
Julia Foster, from the City of Doncaster Council, then talked about the challenges local authorities face in establishing young trees. Whilst Doncaster have an urban tree survival rate of 94%, they still face challenges in expanding and retaining tree canopy cover. She highlighted the importance of appropriate species selection and planting to prevent future conflicts between residents and trees. She discussed funding issues many councils have and the need ultimately for greater central Government funding to monitor planning conditions. She also mentioned the behavioural challenges such as anti-social behaviour, or residents cutting down trees in housing developments, and the need for greater cultural change around trees and the services they deliver in urban areas. To combat this, she recommended the roll out of tree literacy training for decisionmakers at all levels along with public messaging to improve behaviour change.
John Whitby MP asked why there was such a discrepancy in tree planting failure rate between that achieved by well run councils like Doncaster, and large scale projects undertaken by National Highways, which have had significant failure rates reported in the media in recent times. Nicole Hillier reflected that National Highways don’t record sufficient data on their contractors and recommended that they require a performance framework to monitor their delivery. Another attendee remarked that most arboricultural companies have less than ten professionals and they’re not winning these large contracts. It’s larger corporates with staff who aren’t specialised in tree care that are planning and implementing tree planting and aftercare, which accounts for the higher failure rate. Another factor is that often larger trees are planted in urban areas which can improve their chances of survival. Sarah Dyke MP asked what innovation is available for councils to improve survival rates, referencing intelligent sensors that notify management teams when a tree is water stressed. Julia Foster responded that such technology might be beyond the cost of some local authorities, but that innovative approaches to resident engagement could be used more widely. For example, she recommended educating residents to reuse their grey water to help trees establish, and survive during summer drought.
Nicole Hillier then gave a short presentation on the Planning & Infrastructure Bill referencing some improvements that could be made to protect wildlife and irreplaceable habitats, with some suggested amendments that attendees may wish to support.
The session then concluded with a brief update on the actions from the previous meeting and a request to attendees to continue engaging with the secretariat during the COP30 period in November.