It’s increasingly recognised that the UK should build more in timber to help construction decarbonisation and in turn help the country meet emission targets.
The question is how that’s to be achieved – how do we develop a more wood-oriented construction culture?
This was the focus, both the challenges and opportunities facing timber building, of a special Confederation of Timber Industries (CTI) roundtable at London’s ExCeL exhibition site during Futurebuild.
The event attracted participants from a range of sectors, from wood supply and timber building to developers, architecture and insurance, plus representatives of the London Assembly and local councillors.
Special guest was Baroness Sue Hayman, Labour spokesperson in the Lords for the Departments of Environment (DEFRA) and Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and also new co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Timber Industries.
She said there was clear awareness in parliament that improving the environmental performance of construction and buildings was getting ever more urgent.
“In London, for example, the built environment accounts for 78% of all carbon emissions,” she said. “And those emissions will only get higher as long as we don’t change the way we build.”
She added that the Lords had just put down amendments for the Levelling Up Bill around carbon in buildings and the built environment and that it would be “interesting to see the government’s response”.
Timber was also in the political discussion mix.
“Both the Climate Change and Environmental Audit Committees are talking about the potential of timber in construction to help us meet climate change goals,” said Baroness Hayman.
The 2021 formation of the Timber In Construction Working Group (TIC), tasked with informing government on steps needed to boost timber-based and hybrid building, was another important development.
“But once its report is out later this year, we must take on board [its recommendations] and not lose focus,” said Baroness Hayman. She added that she would take back what she heard at the CTI event, “on what the timber building sector needs and can contribute to ensure a sustainable future in construction”, to further inform policy debate.
David Hopkins, chief executive of Timber Development UK (TDUK) said there were points about timber use the industry could and should make even more strongly to construction and policy makers. Key, of course, were the environmental benefits of building in wood.
“Trees suck down CO2 from the atmosphere and when they are transformed into wood products that carbon is locked in for their lifetime,” he said. “Provided the products last longer than it takes more trees to grow, you have a natural carbon reduction mechanism. Moreover, relatively little energy is required in processing timber to produce goods for creating very high performance buildings.”
He acknowledged that, in the current economic environment, there was “less appetite for risk and innovation in the property market generally”.
“And the appetite to build with something people are less familiar with is perhaps lower still,” he said. “But our industry is laying out a number of ways to help construction overcome its caution about wood and to persuade local and central government to change policies which hinder our sector from investing in itself and attracting external investment.”
Mr Hopkins also agreed the creation of the TIC working group was a significant step. “We’re addressing everything from skills, to timber building acting as a market mechanism to drive more tree planting,” he said.
Structural Timber Association (STA) chief executive and chair of the roundtable event Andrew Carpenter added that the TIC working group was focused on four other core areas in addition to skills and timber supply; timber demand, building safety, insurance and carbon. Opening the floor to discussion, he suggested these as the six topics to focus on.
With the UK dependent on imports for 60% of its timber consumption, several participants highlighted the need to develop domestic supply.
“A large part of the carbon impact of using timber is in transport to market, so in terms of decarbonising supply for construction it doesn’t make sense to truck it from Austria,” said one participant. “The trouble is specifiers still learn from books which say ‘this is what you should use in construction’ and it turns out you have to import it from Sweden. We should look at what we have in the UK and develop that resource.”
Mr Carpenter said developing the use of home-grown timber in construction needed collaboration across the supply chain, from forestry to STA members who make construction products and deliver timber buildings. It also needed government support.
“Above all, we must get away from the situation where it’s commercially beneficial to grow timber and send it straight to biomass,” he said. “That nullifies its environmental benefits.”
A participant from a Nordic-based timber supplier said that it would take a long time and major forest growth for the UK wood market to move from its current 60/40 import/domestic supply split. “But there’s a huge amount of effort in the Nordic industries to cut timber transport emissions, with support for development of low-sulphur ship fuels and electric trucks,” they said.
On increasing acceptability and demand for timber construction, the consensus was that further work was needed to address perceptions about its ‘risk profile’, particularly with regards to fire safety. Post Grenfell and the consequent Building Safety Act, timber had been swept up in a backlash against use of combustible materials in wall construction. That was regardless of whether it was being used as cladding or performing a structural role and regardless of the fact that timber was not implicated in the Grenfell disaster. In particular this was seen as influencing the Greater London Authorities’ 2021-26 housing plan. This blocks use of combustible material in “external walls of all homes and buildings, regardless of height”.
Mr Hopkins said part of the solution for tackling timber building misconceptions and risk was to differentiate between types of wood-based construction and their applicability for particular projects. ”We do ourselves a disservice if we just talk about ‘timber construction’ per se and don’t explain that the sector uses very advanced products designed and manufactured for specific building types or parts of buildings, with different risk profiles associated with each,” he said. “In fact, TDUK is now bringing out a book on this topic, targeting local authorities.”
Mr Carpenter also highlighted that the STA’s CLT members were undertaking fire risk testing to further validate the safety credentials of engineered wood building. “Timber is increasingly recognised as the building material of choice with regards carbon, that’s not a question, and we can overcome these other barriers,” he said.
Strengthening the skills and knowledge base of the timber construction sector, from installers to architects, was seen as critical.
“We have amazing talent in the UK timber construction industry, but not in the amount we need to really roll it out to the level we’d like,” said a discussion participant. “The whole supply chain needs to upskill to deliver the sector’s potential value.”
Another delegate suggested working more with local authorities and technical colleges to strengthen the installer base in their area.
Mr Carpenter said the STA was working with IStructE, RIBA and RICS to improve the timber construction information resource for building professionals, while Mr Hopkins said TDUK had developed a ‘Competency Framework for all the different roles in timber construction’, which was launched at Futurebuild.
“Anyone designing and building for a carbon-constrained future needs to understand materials, how they work, their limitations and their supply chain,” he said.
He also highlighted that TDUK is working with the Centre for Advanced Timber Technology at the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) to develop courses in response to the Competency Framework. “These are now running as pilots to secure accreditation,” he said, adding that the potential for rolling courses out to other colleges was being examined.
Another participant urged greater standardisation in timber building.
“It’s another way of tackling the skills gap,” they said. “With standardised building models you don’t need so many skilled individuals.”
On the issue of timber building and insurance, a participant from the sector said that, contrary to the perception of some, timber building professionals can get PII, and that insurance for timber construction generally should not be an issue.
“The key is for you to talk to us, tell us how you’re doing it and walk us through it, then we don’t have a problem,” they said.
Another attendee urged engagement with insurers earlier in the construction process, from the “design team table onwards”.
Despite remaining challenges for timber construction in the UK, however, the discussion consensus was that its outlook remained bright.
“We still need to reach the tipping point where timber construction becomes a de facto norm across the country,” said a representative of the timber frame sector. “But, with the likes of Taylor Wimpey and Barratt just announcing multi-million new investment in offsite timber building, we are getting there.”
