Opinion | 13
GET BRITAIN BUILDING – NOW
A new campaign is lobbying Government to turn its housing construction aspirations into action, reports Timber Development UK CEO David Hopkins
As we approach the halfway mark of the year it’s tempting to look back to the optimistic forecasts from last year that, by this point of 2026 we would be facing steady growth in the housing market, in turn driving confi dent growth in the timber sector. To say things haven’t quite turned out that way would be an understatement. A combination of internal and external market and political pressures have conspired against this. The wider political situation hasn’t helped: kidnapping Venezuelan presidents and bombing Iran are not known to inspire confi dence or stability in markets, while the dithering and endless consultation of our own UK Government does little to stimulate demand or delivery of housing.
The latest Construction Products Association forecast puts all of this into perspective. It predicts construction output volumes will now fall by 2.5% in 2026, with a fall in demand and a sharp upturn in cost infl ation during the second half of the year due to the impacts of the confl ict in the Middle East. Key markets for timber products – housing and housing RM&I – are both set to be hit particularly hard, falling 7% and 8% respectively in 2026. This is a major revision down from the 1.7% growth from their winter forecast. The only precedents for such large downward revisions were during the global fi nancial crisis in 2008, the initial Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020, and the energy commodity price spikes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Overall, construction output is still forecast to rise 1.2% in 2027 but it is still a major revision down from the Winter forecast of 2.8% and of course from
a much lower base.
All of this adds another layer of complexity for the timber supply chain which is already dealing with rising log prices and low stocks in sawmills which we outlined in our TDUK Market Review at the start of this year. Of course, market activity is continuing and we should not talk ourselves into a downward spiral. But these forecasts are coming after several years of brutal trading conditions for the timber sector. We’ve seen the news and felt the market impacts of several large timber supply chain fi rms closing, laying people off, restructuring and posting losses as they try to plough through.
All of this accentuates the need for concerted pressure on the Government to take urgent action to get Britain building. While the Government has been big on rhetoric and the “1.5 million homes” target, seemingly very little action has been taken to achieve this.
The local election results and the resulting aftermath and in-fi ghting in the Labour Party is unlikely to improve this picture. The Kings Speech, laying out the actions for the forthcoming session of Parliament, may have had some good medium-term actions to incrementally improve the overall economy.
But, at a time when there is an over-riding need to jump start the housing market – a sector which can stimulate economic activity across multiple supply chains simultaneously – there was nothing new. For this reason, we’re proud to support – and we’d ask all of our members and readers to support – the Let’s Get Britain Building campaign calling on the Government to take action NOW.
www.ttjonline.com | Summer 2026 | TTJ
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