The recent announcement of the 2025/2026 Scottish Budget, including spending on forestry, has been welcomed but with some concern. The overall position is one of some improvement with increased funding that includes £46.9 million allocated for woodland creation, a 20% increase from the budget of £39.2 million, that followed a huge 41% cut in the budget over the previous year.
This increased funding is expected to support over 11,000 hectares of new woodland and authorities believe that this will enable funding the levels of commercial forestry grant applications that have been seen in any year to date, certainly in recent times.
But some concerns have been raised by the industry on how the money will be spent with native woodland creation being favoured over productive woodland, threatening the long-term balance of 60% productive woodland and 40% native woodland creation. This could potentially undermine sector confidence when considering longer term investment decision making.
Other key points of detail to note are:
- The budget uplift includes additional funding to support maintenance grant applications, supporting the long term funding commitment here, as well as additional money for woodland creation
- Scottish Forestry has received an additional £300,000 for tree health surveillance and monitoring to help with the response against the growing threat of pest and disease, including ongoing surveillance in relation to Ips typographus
Also to note is that there have been commitments to support businesses and business growth, as well as enhanced measures to attract private investment.
New spending commitments include:
- The Scottish National Investment Bank receiving £200 million in 2025/2026 to provide financial support for Scottish businesses while generating private sector investment
- Enterprise agencies receiving more than £320 million to help attract businesses and support expansion
- An enterprise package to boost entrepreneurship and develop clusters of high-tech companies receiving £15 million, with at least £4 million to help women start and grow their businesses
Almost £100 million will be spent on expanding Scotland’s digital infrastructure, while £62 million is allocated to regeneration projects to revitalise towns and communities.
A question for the Scottish Government will be, “how can forestry and timber businesses access that funding?”
