"The economy is much stronger than it has been for a while, we are experiencing increasing demand across most sectors we deal with," said Gary Scott, managing director at Hanson Plywood.

"From that perspective, the existing policies seem to be promoting an upturn and we need to keep being prudent and sensible. But there’s not much liquidity out there and we need to guard against over-trading."

Mr Scott wants to see the chancellor boost training in his budget. "I look around the industry and training is lagging behind at the moment. It’s difficult to train young people and educate them in wood science."

"If you are in London the economy is doing quite well," said DHH managing director Derek Fletcher. "But if the economy is doing so well why are millions of people unemployed and people turning to food banks. The market is bumping along the bottom, but there are certain products which are doing well, like birch plywood."

He said furniture manufacturing jobs were returning to the UK from the likes of China.

Mr Fletcher wants the chancellor to reduce high earner income tax rates so the maximum rate is 40%, enabling people to pay themselves more.

Roy Wakeman, chief executive of the Performance Timber Products Group, said demand had improved over the past six months to the mean experienced since 2009.

"Margins have not fully recovered but there are signs of good prices holding now," he said. "Consumers with steady jobs are beginning to spend on home improvements and the activity in new housebuilding always triggers demand for building products as a result of the increase in housing transactions."

Mr Wakeman wants control of house price inflation and reward through tax for hardworking individuals and businesses which reduce costs through productivity. He described the Green Deal as a "joke", unless VAT for such improvements was reduced to 5%.

Arvid Nielsen, general manager of John Grimes Sawmills Ltd, said the UK home-grown sawmilling industry was enduring tough times caused by the storms of December and January, but the future may be bleaker due to rising raw material prices from huge fluctuation in demand, with log shortages set to get worse.

Mr Nielsen called on the government to amend its biomass subsidy policy to power stations – a factor hindering the timber supply process.

"The growing number of power stations and CHP plants in the UK being subsidised by the UK government is impacting sawmills through the rising cost of roundwood, resulting in rises going directly onto the consumer who is also seeing increases in the cost of electricity from the generators."

BritishWoodworking Federation chief executive Iain McIlwee said driving investment and encouraging broader growth must be "front and centre in this Budget".

"We are encouraged by the recent and impressive uplift in demand, largely led by housing activity. Margins and cash flow, however, remain tight, with costs, particularly raw materials and fuel, impacting profitability."

He urged the chancellor to extend tax relief for new investments in plant and machinery through the Annual Investment Allowance beyond the end of 2014, as well as decisive action to penalise late payment.