The well-documented housing shortage in the UK has become a political hot potato of late. Politicians of all affiliations have been promising to address the issue, whether by pledging support for lending schemes such as Help to Buy, or for the construction of hundreds of thousands of new homes.
The political spotlight has also fallen on modern methods of construction and Modernise or Die: The Farmer Review of the UK Construction Labour Model, commissioned by the Conservative government in February 2016, has become a regular topic of conversation.
This is all excellent news for the timber construction sector and is being seized upon by the Structural Timber Association (STA), which has lobbied successive governments long and hard over the advantages of building with timber. Thanks to the ground made by the sector, the STA now has hard facts to back up its words and has prepared a capacity report to present to government.
The report, Addressing the UK housing shortage using structural timber solutions, starts by setting some context. In 2015, it says, the housebuilding sector had an estimated £24bn of economic output, of which timber frame manufacturers/ housebuilders contributed £6.6bn, or 27.4% of the total. “Structural timber contributes circa 5% of all construction GDP and is a key contributor to the circa 750,000 employed in the construction supply chain,” the report says. “In comparison, construction provides more jobs than aerospace – 268,000; automotive – 247,000; chemicals and pharmaceuticals – 658,000.”
The idea behind the capacity report, said STA chief executive Andrew Carpenter, is to say to government “if you want to build more homes quickly, then look no further than the timber frame industry”.
And he added there was no need to go to China – perhaps referring to the late 2016 news that the China National Building Material Company was part of a joint venture to build six offsite factories around the UK (TTJ February 2017).
“We have more than 400 members and if you look at a map of the UK, there is one in virtually every constituency,” he said.
The capacity report was prepared for a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Timber Industries. Because time was relatively short, data was collected from the 11 largest STA members, who in volume terms represent 44% of the total membership.
“What we were able to ascertain was that if we were given the commitment and the guarantee of a pipeline [from government] we could double the number of timber frame homes we manufacture by 2020,” said Mr Carpenter.
Current capacity is typically run on a single day shift, making increases in output by multi-shifting relatively easy to do. Assuming full-year outputs, the sector can deliver around 150,000 units in 2020/2021, up from around 80,000 in 2017/2018.
The APPG meeting went “very well” and led to an invitation to meet the housing minister in early May. However, the General Election was called and that meeting was then postponed.
The recently appointed Alok Sharma is the sixth housing minister in four years, but the fact that this conduit to the government’s housing policy always seems to be in a state of flux is seen as a frustration for lobbyists, but not a major obstacle.
“It makes it more difficult in terms of continuity and you have to get to know a different person,” said Mr Carpenter. “But I have to say that the emphasis on housing hasn’t changed and despite the change in personnel, there is still a huge focus on housing.
“I’ve never known such unified agreement that offsite construction is the solution,” he added. “There is acceptance at pretty much every government level – national, regional and local – that offsite is what is needed.”
He doesn’t expect government to incentivise the use of a particular building material, but does believe its role is to commit to the pipeline of new housing. “If we are going to invest in new factories and more people then when the next downturn comes – as it will do at some stage – and the private developers pull their horns in, we need the commitment on council houses, affordable homes and housing associations. They need to give us the confidence to invest.”
Acceptance of offsite methods is also at an all-time high within the construction sector itself. “For the first time in my 40-year career, I think there is acceptance that offsite is the only solution,” said Mr Carpenter. “House-builders such as Barratt Homes are actively seeking offsite solutions and many of them are working with our members. “They are worried because there are fewer power stations producing the pulverised fuel ash to make lightweight blocks, so they need other structural solutions and they are turning to timber.”
Many STA members are already investing in increasing capacity.
“There are two business models,” said Mr Carpenter. “The majority are going down the path of extending their premises, expanding the workforce and taking advantage of the increase [in housebuilding].
“There are a few who don’t want to increase volume and prefer to capitalise by raising their prices to make more profit. I don’t blame them for doing that, although it doesn’t help the overall market.”
While there is capacity within the existing UK timber frame sector to double output in the next three years, one question that must be answered is if there is a sufficient number of erector companies.
“This was a question we debated at our last conference and we decided that the best people to create more erectors are the erector companies themselves,” said Mr Carpenter.
“Most of them are SMEs and some will need assistance in going about growing their companies. This is very much on our agenda now and we are looking at potentially getting some funding from the Construction Industries Training Board to help with this. “We already have a track record of delivery,” he continued.
“Three or four years ago we did a small pilot project with 15 companies and grew those by 34%. There is no reason why we shouldn’t roll that out, although obviously to do that you need funding.”
The STA’s capacity report focuses on housebuilding, but other construction sectors aren’t being ignored.
“It’s just that housing is a political hot potato and 70% of our product is sold into housing, so this gives us the maximum opportunity to make a quick win,” said Mr Carpenter.
“Inevitably, if you are building more houses, you need the infrastructure to go with it and there is a huge uptake of structural timber in many other sectors – student accommodation, care homes, hotels, health and education.
“Cross-laminated timber is probably the fastest growing product at the moment, particularly in cities where lack of space means we’re having to build upwards. “The bottom line is that all roads seem to lead to offsite and we’re in a very good position because they also lead to structural timber. We’re making the most of it.”
