Background

The North and Midlands are set to benefit from being the location of England’s third new national forest. This forest will be transformative, providing significant economic, environmental, and social benefits. Defra is now inviting organisations outside of central government or its ALBs to submit an Expression of Interest to enable us to assess the options for delivery in the region.

Summary

Government has made a manifesto commitment for three new national forests (NNFs) to be delivered in England by the end of Parliament. The first of these NNFs – the Western Forest – is in South-West England, while the second will be in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.

This third competition is to deliver a new national forest within the North or Midlands  (as defined in the map in Annex 1). This area has been identified as having the best balance of suitable land availability, environmental opportunity, and alignment with Government priorities.

Each national forest aims to show how trees and woodlands can help tackle  specific challenges facing the country. For the third new national forest, Defra is keen to prioritise locations and approaches that best demonstrate how a richer, more accessible natural environment can improve health and wellbeing for the people who need it most.

Defra has identified the following outcomes that the new national forest will deliver, as follows:

• Transformative change: demonstrating how trees and woodlands can transform a landscape, with positive benefits for wildlife, local communities and business.

• Landscape-scale delivery: delivered across a defined landscape (or landscapes) to create a sense of place and demonstrate the impact of tree planting in the long term.

• Biodiversity recovery: drive significant increases in the cover of wildlife habitats and promote the good management of existing habitats, contributing to targets set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025 (EIP).

• Growth potential: harness growth through the planning system to support the creation and integration of forest habitats within new development, and to fund wider improvements to green and blue infrastructure within the forest. The NNF will also develop and test models of leveraging private investment into its delivery for people and nature.

• Social benefits: Improve the health, wellbeing and skills of a significant population, particularly those in areas suffering significant levels of deprivation.

• National purpose: demonstrate a national purpose in their rationale for transformation that can be repeated elsewhere, influence policy, or impact wider society (e.g., economic regeneration, landscape restoration, new towns).

Project Governance

The National Forest Company (NFC) will act as the grant manager and strategic lead for the project on behalf of Defra, which acts as the grant sponsor. Applicants will serve as the delivery partner and be actively managed by the NFC.

Project Timings

The project has confirmed funding from Defra between 2026/2027 and 2030/2031. Any delivery partner will be also expected to continue operation of the NNF on a long-term basis.

Funding

There is no funding available to applicants for the drafting and preparation of an Expression of Interest.

Details on the total funding available for the project are not available at this point as they are currently subject to internal Defra approvals.

Eligibility

Applicants for the competitive process will be expected to demonstrate that they have the capacity, experience, capability and knowledge to deliver the outcomes of the new national forest.

The eligibility criteria for suitable organisations are:

• Evidence of organisational status: Applicants, whether applying individually or as part of a wider consortium, must be a registered public, charitable or private organisation.

• Leadership, advocacy and strategy: Have skills and expertise in leadership and strategy for major programmes of similar complexity, including organisational resilience, scale and track record.  

• Experience of successful woodland creation projects at scale: Have demonstrable experience of successfully delivering public benefit through woodland creation at a landscape scale, including the administration of grant schemes, support to partners, and detailed reporting.

• Partner and community engagement experience: Have demonstrable knowledge of and active engagement with senior partners and communities. This will include having credibility, trust and networks with key partners, politicians and institutions to support delivery, convene groups and communicate ambitions.

• Planning and private finance experience: Have a proven understanding of and track record of engagement with the planning system and private finance sectors to support significant funding for and delivery of tree planting and establishment schemes.

• Financial solvency evidence: Proven long-term financial solvency, with a demonstrable net income surplus for the last three financial years and the ability to manage cash flows.

Objectives

The chosen delivery partners will then be expected to collaborate with the National Forest Company and Defra to develop plans for a new national forest that will have:

• Governance: To identify a suitable governance and partnership model for delivery involving appropriate organisations, political and community support.

• Appropriate scale: To select a delivery area of 200–600 square miles (c.50k–150k hectares). This is considered small enough to align with an existing geography and also demonstrate the impact of tree planting. It is also large enough to be transformative and have an impact on tree planting (and other national) targets in the long term.

• Transformative potential: To map and evidence suitability for tree planting. The NNF should have current tree cover lower than EIP targets and demonstrate that they contain sufficient suitable land for afforestation to be able to reach high enough total cover (>30%) to justify being called a forest.

• Growth potential: To ensure alignment with local plans for economic growth and development that can benefit from and contribute to woodland creation, where planning policies can be tailored to deliver forest creation alongside growth.

• Social benefits: Increase access to nature for a significant and identifiable population within and immediately outside the forest boundary, particularly those in areas suffering significant levels of deprivation. In particular, to demonstrate the presence of communities who will particularly benefit through access to nature, recreation, education, job creation and volunteering.

• National purpose: To develop the narrative and national showcase for how growth and environmental improvement can be integrated on a landscape-scale. The NNF will make significant contributions to national targets (e.g. EIP) and will demonstrate a national purpose in its function, providing models for innovation that can be repeated elsewhere in the country and beyond.

• Delivery programme: To develop, agree and deliver a programme for the forest including use of funding, targets, monitoring and impact.

Dates

This Expression of Interest runs from 25th March 2026 to 20th May 2026.

How to Apply

This is solely a market engagement exercise, the Expression of Interest aims to enable a clearer picture of the market prior to the potential launch of the future competition.

You will be required to respond to the Expression of Interest via the Apply for Grant platform detailing your organisation and contact details.

Your response must contain the following headings:

• Name of Organisation

• Lead contact name

• Email address (es)

• Any further info you wish to share.

The maximum size of this response is a single page and should be submitted via the Apply for Grant platform. Please do not submit annexes. You may link to documents hosted on your website, Companies House, or the Charity Commission for the provision of evidence.

• Should you have any problems with Apply for a Grant, please submit any clarification questions via email to Joanne.Parkin@defra.gov.uk and Catherine.Hacker@defra.gov.uk

·         Any clarification question emails should have the subject heading as:

 EOI Response: North and Midlands National Forest

Supporting Information

Government announcement of the Western Forest (the first new national forest) can be found here: Government to plant first National Forest in 30 years - GOV.UK

Government announcement of the new national forest in the North and Midlands can be found here: Nation to benefit from two new national forests backed by £1 billion investment in tree planting - GOV.UK