Environment Secretary Michael Gove has launched a new £10m plan to plant more than 130,000 trees in towns and cities in England.  Grants for the plantings will be made available through the Urban Tree Challenge Fund.

Trees in urban areas improve health and wellbeing, connect people with the outdoors, absorb noise, reduce flood risk, lower temperatures through shading, and create green spaces for communities to come together.

The scheme will be open to individuals, local authorities and charities, and will be administered by the Forestry Commission and grants will be made available over the next two years to green urban areas, in an effort to try and meet the government’s target to plant one million trees by 2022.

The fund will pay for the planting of trees and for the first three years of their upkeep.

The grant will be delivered as a challenge fund, and therefore requires match funding from those who apply.