Construction Industry: Timber

Lord Blencathra Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Blencathra]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to increase the use of timber in the construction industry as a low-carbon building material.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Timber in Construction Roadmap was updated and relaunched in February 2025. It sets out how we can increase the use of timber in construction. We are working in partnership with timber industries, government bodies and stakeholders to address the barriers to greater timber use. Our collaboration focuses on developing best practices, researching innovative timber products and increasing the circularity of timber construction supply chains.

[Lord Blencathra (Con)]

My Lords, this country imports 73% of the timber we need for construction, despite having one of the best climates in the world for growing softwoods. Natural England and the Forestry Commission have jointly expressed dismay that only 10% of our tree-planting over the last 10 years has been a productive softwood species we need and that our planting targets overall are unambitious. Given the many benefits of establishing new woods, including commercial softwoods, what will the Government do to rectify this disappointing situation? I know what the Minister has said about the action plan, but will she give us a guarantee that they can cut the regulations and red tape that are impeding many planting schemes?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that we import the vast majority of our timber and wood products, and this makes us the second largest net importer in the world after China. The Government believe that this needs to change. We want to increase the domestic timber market, and we are investing £1 billion in tree-planting and support to the forestry sector over this Parliament. As part of developing the new tree-planting programme, we have been working with our delivery partners and grant schemes to look at how we can increase conifer planting to support domestic softwood timber production.