Promoting timber for construction

13 December 2023

Seemingly ever fond of producing so-called roadmaps towards certain targets, the government has produced another one aimed at boosting the safe use of sustainable UK timber in construction and to increase domestic supply. 

The report, appropriately titled The Timber in Construction Roadmap, states that using the material is one of the best ways to reduce emissions from buildings. Around 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are from the built environment, and larger buildings can store up to 400% more carbon when built out of engineered timber products rather than concrete, it says.

Currently 80% of the timber the UK currently uses is imported. Increasing domestic capacity would create new green jobs in the forestry and wood processing sectors, which contribute over £2bn to the economy.

Using timber more widely could also create hire demand for equipment to work with the material. Indeed, power tool manufacturer Hilti said as much in a recent webinar on the circular economy and its impact, as reported on the blog. 

Key actions set out in the plan include: improving data on timber and whole life carbon, promoting timber as a construction material, boosting skills across the supply chain, increasing the supply of sustainable timber products, addressing fire safety concerns, building collaboration with insurers, and promoting innovation and high performing timber construction systems. 

Only 9% of English new build homes were timber framed in 2019 in contrast to Scotland where this figure was 92%. The government states that, with England’s low rates of building with timber relative to other countries, there is an opportunity to unlock the industry at scale and at speed. 

● On a playful note, I was intrigued to see that the CEO of the Structural Timber Association, which was amongst contributors to the report, is one Andrew Carpenter…