As someone who has spent many years in the sector, starting as a forester in the woods and now in my role at Grown in Britain, I regularly encounter a range of misconceptions about home-grown timber. At events, in meetings, and across the industry, the same questions arise time and again and we’re talking about decades of time passing here! I’d like to address some of these persistent myths and share what we at Grown in Britain have observed in our day-to-day dealings with these issues.
First, let’s address the elephant in the room. The UK imports a significant amount of timber, and these figures are often cited to suggest something isn’t working as it should be. However, increasing timber use in construction is a positive development, as it replaces more carbon-intensive materials.
The issue – and one of the key reasons Grown in Britain was set up – is we import substantial amounts of timber whilst neglecting our own forests and woodlands. Over 10 years ago, when GiB started, the government considered over 60% of our woods were not managed. Our initiative, alongside the efforts of many, has reduced this to nearer 40% today. However, that is a vast resource being left ‘on the shelf’ while we continue to import the same resource from around the world. With global and UK timber demand increasing, it seems inappropriate to import so much when we’re not fully utilising our resources.
In some ways, it’s a devolution of responsibility – we’re relying on others to provide sustainable materials without taking ownership of our own. This isn’t just about economics, sustainability, and biodiversity; it’s also about responsibility.
But the UK simply doesn’t produce enough timber?
What’s genuinely exciting about the UK position is we can change that balance. Our woodland cover is remarkably low – around 13%, significantly lower than countries we import from, such as Sweden (69%), Finland (75%), and Latvia (53%). However, we can increase our woodland cover for the future and make much more of our existing woodlands.
The Forestry Commission has identified up to 3.2 million hectares of low-sensitivity land that could be suitable for tree planting, and the National Food Strategy states that the least productive 20% of agricultural land in England produces only 3% of the calories consumed. This gives us considerable scope for expanding our domestic timber resources.
Yes, increasing woodland cover takes time to yield products, but thousands of tonnes of timber are sitting in existing woodlands right now, waiting to be harvested. We can take immediate action while also investing in our future.
Beyond simply managing neglected woodlands, we need more dynamic and agile approaches to existing woodland management. By ‘dynamic’, I mean proactively taking action rather than the all-too-common cautious ‘wait and see’ approach. For example, more regular and earlier thinning of forests can concentrate growth on fewer stems, helping us gain sawable material more quickly and potentially at higher grades. Dynamic management also means creating different storeys (layers) within woodlands, diversifying species, boosting nature and increasing resilience against pests and diseases.
Native or non-native – what should we plant?
We frequently encounter the belief that native species are always the best option. However, not all native species are particularly productive for creating sustainable construction materials, and not all will be resilient to the significant climate changes we face.
My observation is too many of our woodlands lack resilience – they have too few species, are of single age, or perhaps only a couple of age ranges, and could benefit from introducing more species that can withstand significant climate change.
Non-native species such as Douglas fir are fantastic timber trees and host a huge range of species that support our natural ecosystems.
It is now undisputed that communing with trees, woods and forests is fantastic for our health and well-being and people prefer to visit forests with high canopies they can easily walk under and through, such as the popular sites in Glentress, Snowdonia and the New Forest. Many visitors don’t realise these aren’t native forests but often contain conifers native to North America. Yet these are precisely the woodland experiences they enjoy
Do I have to use oak if I want the gold standard for hardwoods and Sitka spruce for softwood?
Oak is indeed a fantastic species. It’s an incredibly versatile timber, brilliant for construction, and highly sought after. However, our UK processors can’t get enough good oak from our woodlands – partly because they’re not always managed and owners aren’t selling, and partly because there simply isn’t enough to meet demand, ultimately requiring imports from Europe and elsewhere.
Other hardwood species can perform many of the same functions and are wonderful to work with. Beech is sadly neglected, as is sweet chestnut for anything other than fencing. With some innovation, we can also better utilise species such as alder and birch.
Looking at continental Europe provides inspiring examples of what’s possible. Beech CLT (cross-laminated timber) has been successfully used in construction projects across Europe, demonstrating the potential for hardwoods beyond oak in structural applications. GiB’s own R&D into species diversification has delivered home-grown ash, beech and sweet chestnut into curtain walling and thin CLT (a substitute for imported plywood), thereby reducing reliance on imports as well as creating species-agnostic products. The thin CLT has mixed timbers like paulownia, Douglas fir, Scots pine, beech and ash to create hybridised solutions that optimise weight and strength with benefits for transport emissions and ease of handling.
On the softwood side, the UK’s focus has, for good reason, been in Sitka spruce, an amazing construction timber but one that faces threats from spruce bark beetle. In terms of diversifying species, more resilient options like redwoods and firs can grow quickly in our conditions, show good resilience to climate change, and produce excellent material. We need to mix it up a bit.
Yes, but is British timber making the grade when it comes to construction?
The UK’s capability to grade timber to C24 has increased in recent years. This positive development challenges the outdated perception that British timber can’t meet higher grading standards. Today’s reality is quite different, with improved forestry practices and processing capabilities enabling our industry to produce construction-grade timber that meets rigorous standards. The use of acoustic grading equipment is growing, allowing smaller mills to structurally grade timber for a modest investment.
There is, however, still an issue around the over specification of C24 softwood for construction when lower stress grades are perfectly suitable – down to C16 in many cases. While we can and do grade to C24 in this country, it would help increase demand for British construction-grade softwood if designers and specifiers recognised C24 isn’t always necessary.
When C24 is specified, it’s often applied across the board, even when that higher grade isn’t necessary for many parts of a building. Designers frequently default to C24 because they can readily source it from Scandinavia, which tends to ship C24 for everything. The bulk of what we provide in the UK is graded to C16, which is perfectly adequate for a classic frame house – the rafters can be C16, while ring beams supporting multiple floors would need the higher C24 grade.
This over-specification has been an issue for as long as I can remember, creating unnecessary import demand and inefficient use of resources – to specifiers and demanders reading this: please demand C24 only where it’s absolutely needed for structural purposes.
But the UK doesn’t manufacture engineered wood products?
The drive towards more timber in construction, supported by government policy to help fight climate change, will increase the use of solid and engineered timber products. While the UK currently has limited manufacturing capacity for engineered products, this perception doesn’t reflect the growing capabilities within our domestic industry.
Companies like Buckland Timber are leading the way with domestic glulam production. For years, the business has produced high-quality structural glulam beams for construction projects across the UK. We also see development in cross-laminated timber (CLT) and thin CLT as plywood substitutes.
Recently, Forestry England completed a new project, a new seed processing centre which will produce seeds for millions of high-quality, UK-grown, resilient trees in the decades ahead. Working with contractor Willmott-Dixon, Forestry England’s seed processing facility near Delamere Forest in Cheshire, champions home-grown timber using a glulam and CLT structure – Buckland Timber provided the glulam manufacturing expertise, and British-grown larch was supplied by UK Hardwoods Ltd, both Grown in Britain certificate holders. The result is a showcase of British-grown timber’s potential in modern construction.
UK Hardwoods also deserves another mention for its work on thermally modified timber, which shows how innovation can expand the applications of home-grown timber. Originally on shored by Vastern Timber, these thermal modification techniques improve durability and stability, making British hardwoods suitable for a wider range of applications. It is great to see this production expansion driven by sector demand.
These businesses, and many others, are working hard to scale up their operations and strengthen their supply chains to keep up with the rise in demand for home-grown timber at commercially viable rates. We need more investment support for processing facilities to increase capacity and help meet market demand while reducing imports of these highvalue products.
This scaling up is critical to addressing the other elephant in the room, which is cost. As capacity increases, so too does efficiency, making UK timber more competitive when compared to imports. Transport costs have escalated over the last few years and made local timber a better proposition for many businesses. One of these is ercol, the iconic furniture maker, whose GiB ash furniture is aiming for (and will likely soon meet) cost parity with European imports. This has happened through investment and commitment and, importantly, through telling the story of home-grown timber and our woodlands. Attaching the woodland management (nature, biodiversity) benefits to the product in consumers’ minds adds value and creates a better appreciation for homegrown timber.
So why choose home-grown timber?
With so much global uncertainty – from disruption in the Suez Canal to Brexit, from Covid to tariffs – anyone investing in construction will increasingly think about simpler, local supply chains; it makes economic, not just sustainable, sense.
The risks associated with sourcing materials from further afield continue to rise. Insurance costs increase, availability becomes less certain, and prices fluctuate unpredictably. In such an environment, circularity and integrated supply chains are more logical than ever.
If you build in Britain, why not process your materials in Britain? And if you’re processing in Britain, why not grow the timber here too?
The UK timber processing sector is poised to scale up and create these high-value products. We need a few more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to fall into place: support from the government to boost investment by processors, support from growers, and specification from demanders.
At Grown in Britain, we’re working hard to connect these pieces, dispel myths and help the industry realise the full potential of British-grown timber.
