Timber Update November 2022

• Michael Gove commits to 300,000 homes in government house building target, while warning, “We need to be straight with people: the cost of materials has increased because of the problems with global supply chains and also a very tight labour market means the capacity to build those homes at the rate we want is constrained.”
• Use of CE marking has been extended by two years. Grant Schapps stated firms have extra time to apply for new product standards marking, which will replace the EU equivalent.
• As wood is encouraged for use in more sustainable construction and to meet net zero targets, the gap between demand and supply will grow significantly.
• As this shift for timber construction increases, English trees are being examined by researchers for their use in construction, engineering and mass-produced timber products such as CLT and Glulam.
• €1.3 billion has been announced for new Irish Forestry Supports, in the ‘largest investment ever by an Irish Government in tree-planting’.
• Confor continues the prioritisation of tree planting and urges the government to ‘hasten and extend’ plans to plant trees after fewer than 14,000ha of the 30,000ha promised every year by Boris Johnson’s government have been planted in the year to March 31, 2022.

To read more on the industry's calls to government, click here.

Timber Development UK (TD UK) hosted a Global Market Conference on the 2nd November. Speakers discussed the impact Covid-19, the Russia-Ukraine war and energy crisis has had on their timber markets and provided an outlook for the sector in the year ahead. Members came together again for the following annual dinner. Taylor Maxwell attended the conference and held two tables at the dinner in the evening, which was a great chance to catch up with friends and colleagues to discuss the topics of the day.

We are here to supply you with all your fencing requirements. Featheredge, cappings, gravel boards, posts and rails are available in a full range of sizes from UK sawmills. Click here to view all our homegrown fencing offerings.

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The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510. Since then, the ritual has only risen in popularity with an estimated 6 - 8 million Christmas tress being sold in the UK each year. The British Christmas Tree Growers Association estimates that Nordmann Fir makes up 80% of those sales.