Siobhan Baillie The Stroud MP's weekly column. I was really pleased to see the Government again commit to planting more trees across the UK this time with another round of the Urban Tree Challenge Fund. Around 44,000 trees will be planted near schools and hospitals and in deprived areas as we look to meet our carbon emissions targets. There is much to do. Woodland in the UK covers 13% of land when in Germany, for example, the area covered is 30%. To hit our net zero carbon target by 2050 we need to increase this cover to around 20%. In Stroud, a lot of work is already taking place to do our bit to achieve the planting of more trees in addition to this fund. We are blessed with fantastic local experts who are constantly thinking about how to achieve greater tree coverage.