Confor welcomes recommitment to the Timber in Construction Roadmap

The new Timber in Construction Roadmap outlines Government priorities and key actions including:

• Encouraging the use of sustainable, low carbon building materials, and ensuring carbon emissions are considering during the design, construction and use of buildings.
• Fulfilling the Government's commitment to delivering 1.5m homes this Parliament by using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) including the use of timber, to boost productivity in housebuilding and deliver high quality, energy efficient new homes.
• Creating a circular economy by championing timber’s potential for a clean growth future - supporting the construction sector to use the most sustainable, low carbon materials and construction techniques.
• Accelerating economic growth by creating new and diverse green jobs in the productive forestry and timber sectors, as well as stimulating further investment into domestic timber and wood processing supply chains.

These actions will go alongside recommitting to existing plans such as promoting timber as a construction material, boosting skills and capacity across the supply chain and increasing the supply of sustainable timber products.

The amended roadmap goes further than previous Government commitments, setting out more ambitious targets and actions to increase the use of homegrown timber in construction in a move to reduce carbon emissions, provide green jobs of the future, create affordable and sustainable housing, and drive-up economic growth.

Increasing the domestic production of timber will create new green jobs in the forestry and wood processing sectors, which contribute over £3bn to the UK economy.

Forestry Commission Chief Executive, Richard Stanford said: "To reach net zero, we must increase timber production from homegrown trees and use that timber in our buildings to sequester carbon. The Timber in Construction Roadmap will propel forestry production in England to ensure timber security, reduce our dependence on imports, and address the nature crisis by boosting biodiversity, improving water quality, and providing more green spaces for people.

“The Forestry Commission will continue to collaborate closely with partners from the timber, forestry, and construction sectors in this critical area of work for many years ahead".