Joinery sector converges for BWF Members Day

The June 13 event near Daventry saw keynote speaker Gabriel Hemery – Sylva Foundation founder and guest lecturer at the University of Oxford – look at reconnecting people with the woods and explaining how a wood culture can be recreated in the UK.

Elsewhere at Member’s Day, members were updated in a series of workshops covering subject including H&S, the GDPR, healthy and sustainable products and fire safety.

In the fire safety legal update, Laura Page from Pinsent Mason covered the Hackitt Review recommendations.

Members were told that the government will consult on the findings and the landscape in terms of legislative changes would look clearer in the autumn.

“I think dramatic things are going to come as a result of this,” she said. An increased emphasis on testing and certification could have an impact on smaller businesses due to the increased costs, she added.

David Birkbeck, CEO at Design for Homes, predicted that following Grenfell, tower blocks would be faced mainly with masonry and fenestration would typically that which is seen in three-storey townhouses, with every window the same shape and size.

He said the No1 Blackfriars and Blackfriars Circus development would be typical of future projects.

He also predicted more back-to-back house schemes (featuring no rear gardens) and stacked flats, with separate ground floor entrances for each flat, removing costly management charges.

He tipped cross-laminated timber construction (CLT) for further growth. Speaker Martin Hunt, of Forum for the Future, told BWF members that the health and well-being agenda was “a window of opportunity” for BWF members.