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Oak is indeed a fantastic species. It’s an incredibly versatile timber, brilliant for construction, and highly sought after. However, our UK processors can’t get enough good oak from our woodlands – partly because they’re not always managed and owners aren’t selling, and partly because there simply isn’t enough to meet demand, ultimately requiring imports from Europe and elsewhere.
Other hardwood species can perform many of the same functions and are wonderful to work with. Beech is sadly neglected, as is sweet chestnut for anything other than fencing. With some innovation, we can also better utilise species such as alder and birch. Looking at continental Europe provides inspiring examples of what’s possible. Beech CLT (cross-laminated timber) has been successfully used in construction projects across Europe, demonstrating the potential for hardwoods beyond oak in structural applications. GiB’s own R&D into species diversification has delivered home-grown ash, beech and sweet chestnut into curtain walling and thin CLT (a substitute for imported plywood), thereby reducing reliance on imports as well as creating species-agnostic products. The thin CLT has mixed timbers like paulownia, Douglas fir, Scots pine, beech and ash to create hybridised solutions that optimise weight and strength with benefits for transport emissions and ease of handling.
On the softwood side, the UK’s focus has, for good reason, been in Sitka spruce, an amazing construction timber but one that faces threats from spruce bark beetle. In terms of diversifying species, more resilient options like redwoods and firs can grow quickly in our conditions, show good resilience to climate change, and produce excellent material. We need to mix it up a bit. Yes, but is British timber making the grade when it comes to construction? The UK’s capability to grade timber to C24 has increased in recent years. This positive development challenges the outdated perception that British timber can’t meet higher grading standards. Today’s reality is quite different, with improved forestry practices and processing capabilities enabling our industry to produce construction-grade timber that meets rigorous standards. The use of acoustic grading equipment is growing, allowing smaller mills to structurally grade timber for a modest investment. There is, however, still an issue around the over specification of C24 softwood for construction when lower stress grades are perfectly suitable – down to C16 in many cases. While we can and do grade to C24 in this country, it would help increase demand for British construction-grade softwood if designers and specifiers recognised C24 isn’t always necessary.
When C24 is specified, it’s often applied across the board, even when that higher grade isn’t necessary for many parts of a building. Designers frequently default to C24 because they can readily source it from Scandinavia, which tends to ship C24 for everything. The bulk of what we provide in the UK is graded to C16, which is perfectly adequate for a classic frame house – the rafters can be C16, while ring beams supporting multiple floors would need the higher C24 grade. This over-specification has been an issue for as long as I can remember, creating unnecessary import demand and inefficient use of resources – to specifiers and demanders reading this: please demand C24 only where it’s absolutely needed for structural purposes. But the UK doesn’t manufacture engineered wood products?
The drive towards more timber in construction, supported by government policy to help fight climate change, will increase the use of solid and engineered timber products. While the UK currently has limited manufacturing capacity for engineered products, this perception doesn’t reflect the growing capabilities within our domestic industry.
Companies like Buckland Timber are leading the way with domestic glulam production. For years, the business has produced high-quality structural glulam beams for construction projects across the UK. We also see development in cross-laminated timber (CLT) and thin CLT as plywood substitutes. Recently, Forestry England completed a new project, a new seed processing centre which will produce seeds for millions of high-quality, UK-grown, resilient trees in the decades ahead. Working with contractor Willmott-Dixon, Forestry England’s seed processing facility near Delamere Forest in Cheshire, champions home-grown timber using a glulam and CLT structure – Buckland Timber provided the glulam manufacturing expertise, and British-grown larch was supplied by UK Hardwoods Ltd, both Grown in Britain certificate holders. The result is a showcase of British-grown timber’s potential in modern construction.
UK Hardwoods also deserves another mention for its work on thermally modified timber, which shows how innovation can expand the applications of home-grown timber. Originally on shored by Vastern Timber, these thermal modification techniques improve durability and stability, making British hardwoods suitable for a wider range of applications. It is great to see this production expansion driven by sector demand.
These businesses, and many others, are working hard to scale up their operations and strengthen their supply chains to keep up with the rise in demand for home-grown timber
at commercially viable rates. We need more investment support for processing facilities to increase capacity and help meet market demand while reducing imports of these high- value products.
This scaling up is critical to addressing the other elephant in the room, which is cost. As capacity increases, so too does efficiency, making UK timber more competitive when compared to imports. Transport costs have escalated over the last few years and made local timber a better proposition for many businesses. One of these is ercol, the iconic furniture maker, whose GiB ash furniture is aiming for (and will likely soon meet) cost parity with European imports. This has happened through investment and commitment and, importantly, through telling the story of home-grown timber and our woodlands. Attaching the woodland management (nature, biodiversity) benefits to the product in consumers’ minds adds value and creates a better appreciation for home- grown timber.
So why choose home-grown timber? With so much global uncertainty – from disruption in the Suez Canal to Brexit, from Covid to tariffs – anyone investing in construction will increasingly think about simpler, local supply chains; it makes economic, not just sustainable, sense. The risks associated with sourcing materials from further afield continue to rise. Insurance costs increase, availability becomes less certain, and prices fluctuate unpredictably. In such an environment, circularity and integrated supply chains are more logical than ever.
If you build in Britain, why not process your materials in Britain? And if you’re processing in Britain, why not grow the timber here too?
The UK timber processing sector is poised to scale up and create these high-value products. We need a few more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to fall into place: support from the government to boost investment by processors, support from growers, and specification from demanders.
At Grown in Britain, we’re working hard to connect these pieces, dispel myths and help the industry realise the full potential of British-grown timber. ■
FURTHER INFORMATION
If you’d like more information about using British-grown timber in your projects, have encountered a challenge, or would like to learn about Grown in Britain certification, take action and contact us at
enquiries@growninbritain.org or visit
www.growninbritain.org
www.ttjonline.com | May/June 2025 | TTJ
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