A higher profile is being planned this autumn by the Modern Masonry Alliance (MMA), which claims that higher timber costs are encouraging housebuilders to move back to masonry construction.

The MMA, which is relauching its website in September and will be exhibiting at Interbuild for the first time, insists that increased costs of imported timber make masonry a less expensive build method.

The UK Timber Frame Association has responded by saying it is reminding housebuilders that timber frame can drive out inefficiencies and unnecessary costs in masonry build programmes.

MMA director Mike Leonard has been quoted as saying masonry construction is now 15% cheaper than timber frame, with timber costs having “gone up 30%” in the last 12 months, while speed of build was not so important in the current market.

When TTJ contacted Mr Leonard, he would not be drawn on specific figures and said MMA was not launching a campaign to knock timber frame. But he said imported timber prices had gone up significantly while bricks had “not gone up as such”.

“We’re certainly promoting the benefits of masonry as an alternative to timber frame construction,” he said.

He accepted that timber and masonry co-existed in much of new housing, and thought that housebuilders moving back to masonry construction could benefit merchants who are frozen out of the timber frame supply chain.

MMA has attacked timber frame construction in the past, including writing to the government calling for a moratorium on its use in high-rise buildings and a ban on timber cladding in low-rise timber-framed buildings due to “fire risk”.

Geoff Arnold, managing director of Pinewood Structures, said the prices of spruce C16 CLS rose 15% last year, while TR26 material rose 25%, but these had softened recently. “In a masonry house, a lot of the materials used are timber,” he said.

UK Timber Frame Association chairman Stewart Dalgarno said the masonry sector had been badly affected by the lower carbon housebuilding agenda.

“The fact remains that timber is the only sustainable solution for the zero carbon future – and that’s not going away, despite the credit crunch.”