TDUK SupplyingTimber Issue 8 DIGITAL - Magazine - Page 26
———— HOMEGROWN UK WOOD SUPPLIES ————
WHERE WILL THE UK GET ITS
WOOD FROM IN FUTURE?
Tom Coates, Area Harvesting and Supply Manager for James Jones & Sons,
gives his views on the forestry changes needed to make sure England has
enough homegrown timber for the future.
THE MARKET
about the bene昀椀ts of using
homegrown timber.
England has among the
lowest forest cover in Europe,
with a statutory commitment
to reach 16.5% by 2050 (the
current average in Europe is
38%). We import >80% of the
wood we use and it's di昀케cult to
understand why we don’t take
timber security more seriously.
The Land Use Framework's
supporting document makes
no mention of the National
Wood Strategy or the
Timber in Construction
(TiC) roadmap – while
we may be a relatively
small sector compared
to others, surely we are
an important one?
The TiC roadmap
states that UK
softwood availability
will reduce in the next
25 years. Meanwhile,
sawn wood supply
would need to increase
by 2-14% to meet the
Figure 1: Approximate proportions of England's total land
area occupied by di昀昀erent types of land use (derived from
growing demand for
UKCEH spatial data, broken down by Agricultural Land
Classi昀椀cation grade which assesses land's capacity to
timber. Thankfully,
he supporting
document for
the current Land
Use Framework
consultation doesn’t inspire
much con昀椀dence that the wood
we will use in future will come
from England.
There is lots of positive
messaging around the building
of 1.5 million new homes and
measures being introduced
to address climate change,
but there is little information
T
conifer trees are fast growing in
the UK.
Nevertheless, the Land
Use Framework consultation
will hopefully provide an
opportunity for anyone who
sees the bene昀椀t in using
wood to connect the dots
for Government and bang
the drum on how productive
forestry can deliver on nature,
climate change, economy and
many other much-needed
bene昀椀ts.
An uphill battle
Reading more into the
Department for
Environment, Food
and Rural A昀昀airs
Land Use
Consultation's
supporting
document, I
think it’s quite
clear that
productive
forestry in
England has an
uphill battle to
Total stocked woodland area in England by principal
昀椀ght. It’s not
produce food).
SUPPLYING TIMBER
26
SPRING 2025
species, 2021 (measured in ha)
