Alex Mayer MP: speeches

Speeches

• 22 Jun 2026 · East Midlands Railway Collision · Hansard source

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  This was a hugely tragic incident, and my thoughts are with all those affected. The Secretary of State was right to say that we should wait for the investigation and not jump to any conclusions. Will she join me in thanking the local residents who heeded the calls not to visit A&E at Bedford and Luton and Dunstable hospitals unless there was a real emergency, and in praising the independent coach operators—the ones of which I am aware are Johnsons, Tates, Britannia and Angie’s Tours—which, as ever, have jumped in and quietly put all hands to the pump?

• 18 Jun 2026 · Cruelty-free Cleaning Products · Hansard source

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  2. What steps the Commission is taking to reduce the number of cleaning products used on the parliamentary estate that are not certified as cruelty-free.

• 18 Jun 2026 · Cruelty-free Cleaning Products · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome the progress that is being made; we are going in the right direction, from the figure of nine when I originally asked to three today. Would my hon. Friend be willing to meet with the body that runs the international approval programme for cruelty-free products, to see whether we can speed this up and make Parliament fully cruelty-free?

• 18 Jun 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  During the recent heatwave, bus drivers reported soaring temperatures in their cabs and steering wheels that in some cases were literally too hot to handle. Will the Leader of the House consider bringing forward a debate in Government time on maximum working temperatures? As the climate changes, this issue will be of increasing importance to workers across the country.

• 17 Jun 2026 · Steel Tariffs · Hansard source

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  FMC and Dynamic Metals, both of which are in my constituency, have no alternative but to import specialist steel, because if it is not made in Britain, they cannot buy in Britain. What message does the Minister have for those businesses, and will he look at changing harmonised system codes so that customs can better distinguish between generic and specialist steels?

• 15 Jun 2026 · Road Adoption · Hansard source

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  9. What steps his Department is taking to expedite road adoption.

• 15 Jun 2026 · Road Adoption · Hansard source

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  Residents in Fossett Grove have been battling for 10 years for the adoption of a piece of land that is strewn with litter. Elsewhere in my constituency, roads are not gritted during the winter months, in Bidwell West we have an area where they cannot get a post box and, where a car crashed into a house, we cannot get any speed humps. What can the Minister do to put pressure on the council to hurry up?

• 10 Jun 2026 · Railways Bill · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome the Bill. It is fantastic that the vast majority of residents—passengers—in the east of England are travelling on trains in public ownership. This is the next piece of the jigsaw. I note that the amendment paper appears to be longer than the Bill, so as somebody who has contributed to that, I will turn to some of my amendments. New clause 20 is a simple amendment on promoting integration between trains and everything else—buses, coaches, trams, walking and cycling. I agree that there is nothing in the Bill that prevents that, but I feel there should be something to actively encourage it. We will all have been at a station when the mainline train has been delayed and, helpfully, the connecting train has been held back for a little time. However, and interestingly, I recently asked somebody at the Transport Committee who ran a bus company whether he had ever come across a situation where the train had been held because his bus had been delayed, and the answer was absolutely not—and vice versa. In fact, there are lots of incentives to stop that happening within the transport system as a whole—after all, a bus company can get fined for having delayed buses. That is why we need something in the Bill that promotes active integration. Amendments 39 to 42 are about devolution and consultation. Under the Bill as drafted, the Secretary of State and GBR will consult with Scottish and Welsh Ministers. By contrast, elsewhere they will consult with mayoral strategic authorities. The difference is that in one place they are consulting with a person, and in the other they are consulting with an organisation. I strongly believe that consultation should take place with the mayor as the person with that democratic mandate to enable us to have stronger, quicker decision making and ensure that what is happening is clear. I turn to new clause 2, tabled by the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover), on the customer loyalty programme. I cannot say that I agree with the Secretary of State having to lay a report on that within a year—she probably has better things to do. However, the concept of a customer loyalty programme is something I have long called for, and I have had constructive discussions with the Minister on that. Encouraging passengers and would-be passengers to build a loyalty to our railways matters greatly. As has been said, that happens with air miles and with Tesco Clubcard. We could get all kinds of different benefits for passengers, and GBR could use such a programme to try to flex demand.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Community Pharmacies · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) on securing this timely debate. Community pharmacies and the people in them are the backbone of our NHS. They are a fixture on our high streets, dispensing our medicines, providing confidential, expert advice and helping people with everything from colds and tummy bugs to allergies and ear infections. Increasingly, through Pharmacy First, they are also prescribing prescription medicines without patients having to see a GP, which absolutely has to be the way to go. I am full-square behind Pharmacy First, with one small caveat: I have to say to the Minister that I think it has completely and utterly the wrong name. We could say that it does what it says on the tin: “Go to the pharmacy first.” However, to me it is a name that has been dreamed up by health insiders, not by people thinking about how patients actually see our services. When I think about going to the chemist, I think about a place where we probably pay for our prescription and maybe pick up some shampoo or, if it has suddenly started chucking it down, an umbrella. I do not think enough people will be thinking of highly trained clinical professionals who are on their doorstep. Crucially, they will not be thinking NHS. My suggestion for the Minister today is to change the name of Pharmacy First to something else, maybe “NHS+”, and to include compulsory rebranding in every contract, so that the shopfront would scream NHS. NHS means free, trusted and quality, and the plus sign would look a bit like a chemist’s anyway. A knock-on effect would be sprucing up our high streets, creating pride in place, which I know this Labour Government stand full-square behind. I would absolutely shout about it from the rooftops. Ahead of today’s debate, I went on the NHS pharmacies website to find out which of my local pharmacies provide Pharmacy First services. I am afraid that I came away none the wiser, but I did learn the seven common conditions that Pharmacy First chemists can help me with, from sore throats to shingles. Before that, I did not know that there were seven. I tried this out at a meeting of party members recently, and it turned into a terrible round of “Family Fortunes”. No one had the faintest idea what they were. We absolutely need a nationwide campaign so that people understand what services they can get from their pharmacies. If people do not know that these NHS services exist, they just will not use them. We have to stop hiding them in plain sight, and ensure that people understand what every community pharmacy already is: the NHS front door on every high street.

• 27 Apr 2026 · Animal Testing · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I must be the night owl of this debate. I have long believed that replacing the use of animals in experiments is the right thing to do. Indeed, it is the mark of a civilised society that we treat animals well. It is ethically sound, but can also be economically beneficial. Replacement technologies are a real growth opportunity for the life sciences sector. Human base models are more accurate and relevant, saving time and aiding profitability. A KPMG UK life sciences report argued that, if new technologies are employed, they have the potential to accelerate market entry for innovative products by up to two years, potentially saving up to £7.8 million. What is more, the UK is well positioned to lead. We have a really strong life sciences sector, especially across the east of England, as well as expertise and infrastructure. If we unleash our scientists alongside a Government with really clear objectives, the future is bright. That is also what people want. Petitions like the one we are debating, poll after poll, and the number of people in the Public Gallery show that the UK public really want to see action. A statistic I find interesting is that 76% of people want to see funding diverted from animal experiments to animal-free methods. They do not want animals to suffer. We have heard so many examples of that suffering throughout the debate, like the 2,646 dogs used in experiments in 2024. That led to horrific outcomes: vomiting, diarrhoea, bleeding, organ failure and, ultimately, death. We can do better, and I welcome the Government’s leadership on this issue. We can learn from the ban on animal testing for cosmetics, which was brought in in the UK in 1998—under a Labour Government, of course—and introduced across the EU in 2013. That cosmetic testing ban pushed science to meet the legal deadlines. It accelerated work to develop and approve new non-animal methods. The ban also stimulated big investment in non-animal methods: over €238 million in EU funding was spent on those between 2007 and 2011. Without the legal deadlines set by those bans, it is likely that many of the non-animal methods we know today would simply not exist. Whenever I read research websites or documents, I am struck by how often many of them are at pains to point out that they stick to the letter of the law, no more, no less—perhaps more importantly, no more. That is why the law must be a key driver of change. As we have heard, science is moving at pace, with organ-on-a-chip systems, human cell-based models, computer models and AI, which we hear about in all kinds of debates but can particularly take heart from here. When the astronauts went off to the moon recently, I saw that they took some of those organs on chips with them. That is progress. We used to take monkeys, dogs and mice and blast them into space, and now we are taking an organ on a chip instead. Back down on Earth, this is clearly an area where Britain can lead, but it also involves a truly international approach. Back in 2018, I went to the United Nations alongside Cruelty Free International. We handed over a petition with 8 million signatures from across the world, calling for a global ban on animal testing for cosmetics. I was struck by a couple of things. First, it was hard to find where in the UN the responsibility for that sat; it spans different Departments in the UK, and that is an issue across the world too. Secondly, we have not yet even managed a global ban on cosmetics testing on animals—only around 45 countries have secured that to date—so we need British leadership on that, as well as on testing for medical procedures. This matters because many of the testing procedures carried out in the UK are done to meet overseas requirements for pharmaceuticals, so it is not something that we can tackle alone. I would be very grateful if the Minister could outline how we are working with our international partners to achieve harmonisation, more international co-operation, consistent frameworks and transparent data exchange. [Graham Stuart In the Chair ] It is also important that we are positive about our scientists. We abhor it when we see researchers carrying out experiments that we do not think should be done on animals, but we must never be anti-scientist, because it is the scientists who will make sure we have these brand-new methods. We need them, so we have to be relentlessly pro-scientist. I have no doubt that our amazing scientists can rise to this challenge, especially when the Government set out really clear expectations. Together, we can ensure that the UK is at the forefront of innovation and meets the expectations of the public that we serve.

• 26 Mar 2026 · Transport Accessibility for Disabled People · Hansard source

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  I am always pleased to speak in debates about transport. I want to paint a picture for the Minister of Leighton Buzzard station—he is, of course, welcome to visit too. There are two lifts, which is fantastic, and I do not knock those lifts at all, because I know that many people want them. At the moment, a person can walk in from the ticket entrance side, get into one of the lifts, go up, go across and go down again, but then they hit a slight problem. They then have to walk all the way along the platform, passed the locked gate, whereupon there are a few steps to go up and a few steps to go down to get out of the station on to the other side, where many people want to go—it is a place called Linslade. As I said, there is a locked gate on that route. Were that gate to be opened, they would have entirely step-free access to get to the outside world. I know that it is not that simple, because I have had a lot of conversations with people about it—there is some greenery in the way, some cables and there are issues with public rights of way—but it really does not seem impossible. My last discussions were with Network Rail and it said that it was talking to London Northwestern. Given that they are both now in public hands, it does not seem that there are many people to pass the buck between. Will the Minister suggest how we can make best progress on that local issue? Moving on, I will talk briefly about a couple of points in the Transport Committee’s “Access denied” report. The first is the recommendation in paragraph 105 on a unified complaints system. I am in favour of unification and standardisation, and I think that Great British Railways offers a real chance to do that in many ways, not least on lost property, which I spoke about on Second Reading of the Railways Bill. I also think that as we establish more and more regional transport brands—the example of the Weaver brand has been discussed—that will be what customers think of as the portal gateway to many different types of transport. Indeed, that may well be the place where people ought to be pointed towards if they want to make a complaint—or, actually, if they are going to give somebody a compliment, because it is not always bad news. I also highlight paragraph 25 of the report, which focuses on neurodiversity. It mentions various issues, including ambiguous signage, which nobody wants. I personally find the Thameslink boards at Blackfriars to be particularly confusing, and I never know which side the train is coming in on. Great British Railways offers us perhaps a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create familiarity and consistency right across the network. There are reports from Tokyo that on its metro, the Ginza line, colour-zoned boarding areas have been introduced and that has been cited as an example of neurodiverse-friendly design. It is also a design that has improved passenger circulation overall and meant far fewer last-minute dashes by everybody to the platform. Because this is, as the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) mentioned, the good thing about accessible design: improved signage can help tourists or commuters rushing to make a connection and banishing steps also helps anybody with a suitcase or a pram. For society to thrive, we need to make use of the talents of everybody. If we do this right, we do not just remove barriers; we raise the standard of travel for everyone.

• 26 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The clocks change this weekend, and at a stroke we will have light in the evenings. We could have light at evenings all year round if we adopted Churchill time; it would also cut bills, reduce road traffic accidents and boost the hospitality industry. Given that this is a cross-departmental issue, how can I best get traction on this, so that we can be the Labour Government who really light up everybody’s lives?

• 11 Mar 2026 · Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation · Hansard source

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  Lots of letters are late. One that stood out to me, which a constituent raised, was a parking fine that had almost doubled in price by the time it arrived. Locally, the Royal Mail tells me that it is recruiting 12 new postal workers, but if that does not fix the problem, what should we try next?

• 5 Mar 2026 · World Book Day · Hansard source

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  I recently ran a survey in a local school and asked the children what they thought they would be doing if they were not spending as much time on smartphones. About a third of them said they thought they would be reading more if they were on social media less, so I am really pleased that the Government are running a consultation and are about to take serious action.

• 5 Mar 2026 · World Book Day · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I want to put it on the record that Paddington is my favourite bear, and I have a large poster of Paddington in Westminster in my office, so I do not want people to get the wrong end of the stick and think he is only liked by certain other parties. In the early years of the 20th century, a young girl was growing up in a Georgian house at the end of the high street in Leighton Buzzard. As a child, she would often wonder why things went missing or were not exactly where she remembered leaving them: a stamp that had disappeared, a safety pin that turned up somewhere entirely unexpected, or maybe a missing potato. She imagined that tiny people were living quietly in the corners of her home, borrowing things. She was Mary Norton, who became the author of the world-famous book “The Borrowers”, putting Leighton Buzzard on the map for readers forever. Today, the house that Mary Norton grew up in is part of Leighton middle school, which I had the pleasure of visiting recently, where I met enthusiastic, curious and thoughtful pupils. I love going to schools across my constituency—it is one of my favourite things to do. In Lime Tree academy in Houghton Regis I recently met Fatima, who told me that she had read every single book in the school library. Sadly, not all her peers are such strong readers. Less than half of white working-class pupils in central Bedfordshire reach the expected standard of reading in year 6—that is the lowest figure in the entire country. Can the Minister tell me what bespoke help is available for schools that have been let down for decades by Tory Governments and the council’s local education authority? I know from visiting classrooms that the teachers are just as dedicated and the children are just as eager to learn as elsewhere in the country. There are systemic problems that need to be sorted out, including the three-tier system that we have. I welcome the new National Year of Reading. I note that it is the third: there was one in 1998, one in 2008 and now one in 2026. Those years are linked, I think, by the fact that we had Labour Governments in all of them. The campaign asks families across the country to read together for just 10 minutes a day. As has been noted before, there are fantastic places to read, including local libraries. Over the summer I went to Dunstable library, which is a fantastic facility. I met a young girl there who was reading all about Arrietty, star of “The Borrowers”. My constituency also has brilliant bookshops, including Book Leighton Buzzard, an independent bookshop that is bringing authors into classrooms throughout 2026 as part of the Year of Reading. One thing that I do rather a lot is turn to a little part of a book that people may not always read—the bit that says where it is printed. I have a reason for that, which some hon. Members may know about. In my constituency there is a facility run by Amazon, which prints books on demand. When I went there for the first time I found it a fascinating place, because they print lots of individual books. It looks like a shelf, a bookshop or a library, because all those books are different shapes, sizes and colours. I flicked through a book at the facility and it said in it, “Printed by Amazon in the UK.” I thought, “That’s not good enough, is it? I want people to know exactly where in the UK it was printed.” I asked the bosses whether they would change it, and I think they thought I was being a bit daft about the topic. I thought, “Well, I am going to keep on asking about this,” but I kept on being ignored for a little while. Then I stumbled upon an idea. I thought, “I know— I am going to write my own book: a little children’s book about a book with an identity crisis, who goes all around the country trying to find out where he was printed.” He goes all the way to the west of England to see if he was born—printed—there, and he goes all the way up to Scotland. He goes to Liverpool and finds out about the Beatles, but does not think he was published there. Finally, the local MP intervenes, and thankfully, the book finds out that he is actually from Dunstable. I sent the book to the Amazon bosses to be printed, and said, “All the best stories have happy endings, so please make my story have a happy ending too,” and they did that for me. Now every single book printed on demand by Amazon proudly says, “Printed in Dunstable” on it. The self-publishing industry is really changing: the number of self-published books now exceeds the number of traditionally published ones. My office manager has penned one called “Ash”, a thriller set in Iceland, and I have a friend called Stephen Rogers who wrote about a nuclear disaster in the Bristol channel. In Dunstable, publishing has truly been democratised. More than a million books have now flown off the printing press there, all proudly saying, “Printed in Dunstable”, which has put the town on the map and is a phrase that I will always enjoy reading.

• 5 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Young coach drivers are severely limited in the distances they are allowed to drive. Trying to get to London from your constituency, Madam Deputy Speaker, they would only make it as far as Sheffield. The Government have recently closed a consultation on this issue. Could the Leader of the House let us know when we will get a response? It seems very strange that people of the same age are able to drive a 44-tonne lorry, but not a coach for any considerable distance.

• 23 Feb 2026 · Housing Developments: Access to Infrastructure · Hansard source

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  Until local roads are adopted, communities miss out on so much—from having their roads gritted to getting a post box, as I have found out. How can we speed up Central Bedfordshire council and others?

• 11 Feb 2026 · Woodland Creation · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. Woodland creation is, at its heart, hopeful work. It is about climate action, nature recovery and public good. It is about taking long-term decisions for future generations. I also like that we know it is doable, because we have examples right across the country. At a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group for woods and trees, I saw a fantastic slide that showed the national forest in the midlands going from 6% tree cover all the way to 23% or 24% tree cover. It was fantastic to see that visually displayed. That woodland is supporting animals, birds, walks, trails and 5,000 tourism-related jobs every year. That is why I back the Labour Government’s ambition to create three new national forests, including one right in the centre of the growth corridor, in my part of the world and that of the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson). That is the kind of growth everybody can get behind—from seed to sapling to towering trees. We can already see the Labour Government’s first new national forest getting under way and taking shape. A friend who lives in that part of the world says that so many fences have been erected to protect the new trees it now resembles a prisoner of war camp. Those fences are really important, because protection in the early years matters for trees. Saplings are vulnerable. They need time, protection and sustained care. The Minister and I recently discussed young tree survival in an Adjournment debate that I very much enjoyed, so I am back for more. That debate focused on urban trees, but I want to talk about woodland trees today. There are a lot of similarities, but also some differences. The similarity is, of course, that we need to get the right tree in the right place. They all need water, though less so in woodland environments than in urban environments because the soil naturally retains more moisture. In woodlands, weed control is particularly important, as is making sure that the saplings are planted well, healthy, British grown and disease free. The first three to five years are so important for establishment. We have to move beyond the “plant, plant, plant” mantra to “establish, establish, establish” because that is what really matters. Success is measured not by trees planted, but by trees thriving. Thinking about the very early years of trees means thinking about having thriving domestic tree nurseries supplying the right trees, at the right time, in the right quantities. With our ambitions rising significantly, domestic supply needs to keep pace to avoid reliance on imports, which increase pest and disease risks and weaken resilience. Planting native species gives the greatest wildlife benefit. How will the Government better align tree supply with planting grants? Given that nurseries need to plan so many years in advance, how do we ensure long-term stability? We also need a focus on skills and workforce. Growing trees is skilled and technical work and the nursery sector faces big skills shortages. This week is Apprenticeship Week. I have met lots of apprentices, but none planting trees. How do we make sure that we have a real pipeline of talent in forestry skills and horticultural training? Investment in people is investment in resilience. As the Minister knows, I back the “Strong Roots” report’s recommendation for British-grown tree certification. The idea behind that is to grow market identity, transparency, investment and confidence—and pride, too. It is totally on brand for this Labour Government to establish “Great British Trees”. Will the Minister push that with her Cabinet colleagues as we seek to change the country and create landscapes that endure?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Young Children’s Screen Time · Hansard source

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  I recently did a survey with local schools. Perhaps the children were more willing to put on the survey how much screen time they had when they were not supervised by their parents, but I was enthused about the things that they said they would do if they were not on social media, including spending far more time outdoors and reading, as has already been mentioned. Does the Minister agree that we need evidence, so we are not doing just what is simple but what is right?

• 21 Jan 2026 · Water White Paper · Hansard source

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  This week, work begins on storage tanks to stop raw sewage pouring into the River Ouzel during periods of heavy rainfall—I know that my constituents and residents welcome that, as I am sure do the fish in the river. Does the Secretary of State agree that since we have had a Labour Government, it really has been all cisterns go on issues such as this?

• 21 Jan 2026 · UK Wine Industry · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend talks about bottles, but they are not the only way of packaging up wine. In my constituency, the innovative packaging company ecoSIP makes single serve wine portions but, bizarrely, regulations mean that they cannot sell them in 125 ml containers. Does my hon. Friend think that is a strange anomaly, and would the Minister care to comment on it later?

• 19 Jan 2026 · Sale of Fireworks · Hansard source

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  I wonder if my hon. Friend prefers the whoosh as fireworks go up, rather than the bang; I think that is what most people are there for. My constituents get in touch with me to say that when they complain, they feel as if they are passed from pillar to post between the council and the police. Does my hon. Friend agree that it should be easier and simpler for my constituents to know who to make a complaint to?

• 15 Jan 2026 · Protection and Management of Young Trees · Hansard source

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  Let me begin by thanking organisations including the Woodland Trust, the Arboricultural Association, the Forestry Commission, Highways England, the Horticultural Trades Association and the National Forest Company, and Ness Champion, founder of the Biophilic Design Conference, for their engagement ahead of the debate. I think most people like trees. I go around saying they are great—tree-mendous, indeed—so much so that my mum and dad got me an “I Spy Trees” book for Christmas, which I think will become somewhat easier to complete in the spring and summer months. Trees are woven into the very fabric of our nation, our culture and our heritage —the apple tree that sparked Newton’s revolutionary thinking on gravity; the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ tree, a symbol of solidarity and the birth of the trade union movement; Sherwood forest, immortalised by Robin Hood; and the famous 100 acres, home to Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger and co. Trees are place-makers. I recently visited a new development called Linmere, where trees are quite literally used to sell the place, with marketing material suggesting that residents “stroll through tree-lined avenues and take in the nature around you.” Everyone moving in gets their own new tree in the garden. Trees improve our lives. They improve our health, both physically and mentally. Urban trees, shrubs and hedges reduce exposure to air pollution by dispersing and capturing pollutants such as particulate matter and ozone. Collectively, urban woods in the UK do a brilliant job of removing an estimated 7.5 kilotonnes of pollutants every single year. Trees can also be lifesavers. Research suggests that increasing green space by just 1% in the most deprived urban neighbourhoods in England is linked to 37% fewer preventable deaths. Trees also reduce flooding. I was struck when I visited a local school on a soggy day last year, when many homes and businesses had experienced flooding, and asked the headteacher whether the school had had any problems, and it had not. She pointed to the trees on the surrounding playing fields, which had intercepted the rainfall and absorbed so much water. Forest Research estimates that trees deliver over £400 million a year in flood protection. In the summer, the same trees offer vital shade. Crucially, our trees lock away carbon for decades or even centuries. UK woodlands store around 1 billion tonnes of carbon. Despite all those brilliant benefits, as a nation we are under-treed—we are well below the European average. That makes us the second largest importer of timber in the world. I am delighted that the Government have pledged to plant three new national forests. The first, in the west of England, is under way, and next the Ox-Cam growth corridor will see growth of a different kind—from seed to sapling to forest. With £1 billion of investment in tree planting and forestry support over this Parliament, and tree planting at its highest rate in over 20 years, with 10,000 football pitches-worth planted last year, “plant, plant, plant” is a good mantra. But we also need to think about something rather less catchy: “establish, establish, establish”. The first three to five years of a tree’s life are critical. That is when trees are most vulnerable to drought, damage, disease and death. Of course, tree and woodland creation will always involve some risk. There will be years when the weather means more trees do not make it, even when best practice is followed, but what we are seeing goes far beyond unavoidable loss—to the planet and the public purse. University of Sheffield research found that only 61% of the trees meant to be present on new developments were there.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Protection and Management of Young Trees · Hansard source

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  The research found that 39% of the trees were missing or dead. Along the A14, National Highways planted over 860,000 trees in 2020, but the failure rate was 45%. More detailed evidence comes from the evaluation of urban tree planting across four cities—Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leeds—covering trees planted between 2012 and 2022. The team says that just finding out what was planted and where was far harder than it should have been. Record keeping is not good. Even freedom of information requests did not yield data. “Do the trees exist?” they kept asking. Of the 820 expected trees, they discovered that only 687 were actually planted, so 23% of funded or required trees were never planted at all. Of those that were planted, only 42% were in good condition. Around one in five had died or been removed—we might call that a trage-tree—and nearly a third were in poor condition, showing stress, damage or inadequate growth. Very few were growing as we would want them to. The National Audit Office reported that £48 million of Government investment went into the urban tree challenge fund. If these outcomes are representative, around £10 million of that investment may already have been lost—literally dead wood. This is not a marginal issue; it is a systemic value-for-money problem. Why are these young trees dying? The research consistently points to similar causes: the wrong tree in the wrong place. I am struck by how often, especially in new builds, the trees are the responsibility of landscape gardeners. There can be a tendency to over-prioritise aesthetics, or even a rightful desire to create a sense of place, over choosing trees that will survive and thrive. We need better species selection—the right tree in the right place for the right reason—with climate resilience built in. But even if it is in the right place, research shows that young trees are prone to damage from poorly managed stakes and ties, strimmer damage, soil compaction and, sadly, vandalism. Staking in particular is an issue. It should be a temporary support, not a permanent restraint, but there are too many examples of trees literally being strangled by ties that are far too tight and so restrict the natural expansion of the trunk, so as the tree grows, the ties cut into the bark, disrupting the flow of water and nutrients. Sometimes it simply is not anyone’s job to remove the stakes and ties after a year or so. We see on new developments that landscaping and management fees often do not translate into tree care at all and, in some cases, actively contribute to tree loss. Another cause of early tree death is insufficient water because young trees are thirsty. Newly planted trees need to be watered two to three times a week. They knock back 50 to 100 pints each time. They need deep and regular soaking. Establishing trees need water once a week in dry weather. Watering in the first one to two years is one of the most important factors in whether a tree struggles long term or goes on to thrive. What needs to change? I know that this Government are committed to early years, so do we perhaps need a best start tree hub as well where everybody learns about watering, mulching and formative pruning? As I have outlined, the data is patchy. How do we do better as a nation? Does the Minister support mandated record keeping, minimum three-to-five year aftercare plans and reporting requirements tied to planning permission, grants and public contracts? In housing developments, should tree planting and aftercare contracts always be bundled together, so responsibility cannot be passed away? How do we better implement those planning conditions relating to aftercare? I do not expect the Minister to be able to give me answers to all this; she may direct me to other Departments. That is important, as the issue of trees is not just for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; it is also about housing, communities, transport, health and more. However, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government currently lacks an in-house tree expert. It has been over a decade since the Department had an arboriculturist role, which previously provided expertise on urban trees, including tree planting and tree preservation order regulations. The sector says that it feels that gap keenly. Will the Minister reassure me that the welcome England tree action plan will have cross-departmental buy-in? Will it contain best practice, including clear schedules for watering, mulching, pruning and monitoring? Of course, much of that already exists, for example in the Arboricultural Association, which I know stands ready to support the Government, and Highways England, which learned from its A14 debacle—the survival rate for trees in its 3 Million Trees project now stands at 85%. Maybe there could also be a section on performance-related tree payments—bonds with sums released only when trees are established so that the reward comes not for trees that are planted, but for trees that thrive, so that aftercare can no longer be treated as an after- thought. For the Government’s ambitions to flourish, we will need thriving tree nurseries. The excellent “Strong Roots” report has many recommendations to nurture the sector and increase the number of British-grown trees: for example, to better align tree supply with planting grants to give nurseries confidence to invest, so that we avoid situations like the Scottish Government cutting their forestry grant scheme budget by 41% back in 2024, and to boost training, apprenticeships and skills development in tree production. One thing that stood out to me was that the report suggests introducing a British-grown tree certification logo to strengthen market identity. I can very much imagine the Minister launching the “Great British Trees” logo, so I would love to hear her comments on that. Tree planting without establishment is not climate action; it is waste. However, with simple policy changes, we can ensure that young trees survive, thrive and deliver the economic, environmental, social and economic benefits that we all know they promise.

• 6 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. AW Group in my constituency has two wind turbines and a solar array, which are creating what I think of as great Bedfordshire energy, but currently it gets muddled in with all the other energy in the area and the company cannot have its own local tariff. Will the Minister consider community energy projects being able to sell direct to local consumers?