Growing the timber community

As the UK economy appears to be showing the first twitches of life, construction is back on the agenda as one of the main means to keep its heart beating.

All political parties are trying to outdo each other with pledges to boost housebuilding and other forms of construction in the election runup year, while public and private sectors alike realise they cannot put off vital investment much longer.

Looking at key sectors of annual spend, such as housing, education, and healthcare, along with commercial and retail sectors and refurbishment markets, it is clear there is a huge backlog of building work to be done to meet basic social need.

In education, for example, the National Audit Office recently warned the UK could suffer a shortfall of 256,000 school places by September 2014 without a significant programme of newbuild and extension projects.

In housing we are way behind social need, leading to Labour's promise to build 200,000 homes per year.

However, finance is not going to start flowing indiscriminately and environmental standards must be met. So planners, designers and developers are challenged to balance the creation of tomorrow's sustainable communities with austerity-era cost controls.

This presents an opportunity for modern methods of construction in timber, which has been shown can outperform other materials in all of these sectors on cost and sustainability. That's why Wood for Good is launching a series of monthly "Growing Communities" seminars. Each will focus on a particular market segment, starting with "Meeting the housing challenge" in January, with education, healthcare, retail and commercial, interiors and refurbishment following through the year. The subject matter will focus on the issues arising in each of these market segments and show how timber can help address them.

By positioning timber as a solution, we aim to continue making it the first choice for all new construction. And that is no fanciful pledge to get elected!

? TTJ Industry Updates are a forum for trade bodies to address key issues.