More timber must be used in construction if the UK is to reach net zero by 2050, MPs have said.
A report from the Environment Audit Committee echoes the finding of last month’s Climate Change Committee progress report, which called for timber use in construction to increase to 40% of materials used.
In its latest report – Seeing the wood for the trees: the contribution of the forestry and timber sectors to biodiversity and net zero goals – the EAC has called for greater use of timber in construction, stating the government should support the UK sawmilling sector to transition towards “producing a higher percentage of construction-grade timber products and engineered timber”.
It points out that timber’s carbon storage potential as a construction product means that construction could eventually become carbon-negative.
But the report says this goal is far from being achieved, with the current rate of planting less than half what it needs to be to reach the 30,000 hectares by 2025 target.
It adds that the government “is relying on third parties” to achieve this goal. Forestry England has only planted 303 hectares against its own target of 2,000 hectares between 2021-2026.
Committee’s chair Philip Dunne said: “The government’s target to plant 30,000 hectares of woodland in the UK by March 2025 is welcome, and by and large ministers appreciate the conflicting challenges and demands on woodland. But the committee is concerned that England is currently way off meeting its contribution to that UK-wide goal, and that the rate of planting must increase: not only to achieve greater biodiversity, but to ensure that the supply of timber from productive forestry is maintained.”
The report adds that, while “the government’s aim to increase the uptake of timber in construction is welcome”, more action needs to be taken to ensure that this happens.
“The long-term use of timber in construction offers longer term carbon storage potential than other uses of harvested wood products and therefore has an important role to play in helping the UK to meet its net zero targets,” it says. “Domestically grown timber resulting from the current drive to plant must be available for use in construction as far as possible.”
It adds that the government’s promised Timber in Construction roadmap “should therefore be issued without delay”, detailing how the government “can incentivise the safe use of domestically grown timber in construction, including through innovation in engineered timber products.”
The report says less than 20% of UK harvested wood products are used in construction, but this is increasing, in part through use of engineered products like cross-laminated timber.
Most of the use is in housing. Some 28% of new-build homes in the UK used timber frames in 2016.
However, there are large variations in timber use across the UK. In 2016, timber use was 83% in Scotland, 23% in England, 31% in Wales, and 17% in Northern Ireland.
The EAC also echoed the recent All Party Parliamentary Group for the Timber Industries report, which called on ministers to improve supply resilience by increasing UK productive forestry through streamlined planting and commercial softwood species targets.
David Hopkins, chief executive at Timber Development UK said: “It is great to see MPs in the Environmental Audit Committee once again acknowledge the pivotal role timber must play in decarbonising construction in the UK,” adding that the UK is “lagging well behind other European states”.
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