What does the pledge mean?

There are broadly three defined different types of tree cover in England—forests, woodland, and trees outside woodland—which are distinguished by their density and size.

The Forestry Commission, which promotes woodland growth in England, defines woodland as tree cover which is at least 0.5 hectares in size, at least 20 metres in width, and has a canopy cover of at least 20%. There’s no set single statutory definition of either ‘woodland’ or ‘forest’, however. When we asked the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) what its definition of a ‘national forest’ is, a spokesperson said this label was not a formal designation, but an “opportunity area” to enable collaboration between government and landowners.

There is currently one named ‘National Forest’ in England, which was established in the 1990s and spans 200 square miles of the Midlands between Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire.

Labour’s manifesto didn’t specify how many new woodlands it would create, or set a precise figure on the number of trees it wanted to plant across England, aside from “millions”. It also did not specify dates for when these would be achieved by.

A Defra spokesperson confirmed these commitments were by the end of this parliament—so by August 2029 at the latest.

There is already a legally-binding commitment for 16.5% of all land in England to be covered by woodland or trees (outside of existing woodland) by 2050, which was introduced by the previous government in 2023 and the Labour government has confirmed it is committed to.

What progress has been made?

We are rating this pledge as “appears on track”, as locations for two new National Forests have been announced, and a competition will determine the location of the third.

In March 2025, the government announced it would create a new National Forest, the Western Forest, across Bristol, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset. It said it would create “at least 2,500 hectares of woodland and other tree habitats” by 2030, and plant 20 million trees by 2050.

The Oxford-Cambridge corridor was announced as the location for the second new National Forest in November 2025 (Bedfordshire’s Forest of Marston Vale Trust has been named as its development partner).

Between May and July 2026, the first stage of a competition ran to determine the exact location of this third forest, which will either be in the Midlands or the North of England. The government said it expected the forest to be up to 600 square miles and that it was committing up to £7.5 million over five years towards the successful project.

According to the Forestry Commission’s latest data, which covers the financial year 2025/26, some 6,386 hectares, or approximately 7.8 million trees, were planted. This compares to 7,164 hectares (10.4 million trees) in 2024/25 and 5,562 hectares in 2023/24 (7.1 million trees).

So while the pledge to plant “millions” of trees could be said to have been met already, the government was setting a very low bar. It’s worth noting that the past six years have all seen at least four million trees planted in England annually.

The June 2025 Spending Review allocated £816 million for tree planting in England between 2024/25 and 2028/29. This compares with £500 million allocated for tree planting under the previous government from 2020/21 to 2024/25, with an additional £124 million allocated in October 2021 for both tree planting and peat restoration.