Timber industry welcomes housing pledges, calls for greater use of low carbon materials
Timber industry welcomes housing pledges, calls for greater use of low carbon materials
The Confederation of Timber industries (CTI) welcomes recent housing pledges made by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and calls for these homes to be built using low carbon materials.
Labour has committed to building 100,000 council homes and “at least” 50,000 affordable homes via housing associations a year by the end of parliament in its election manifesto published today.
This follows the Liberal Democrats manifesto pledge to deliver 100,000 social rent units a year and require all new homes to reach Passivhaus standards from 2025 announced yesterday.
Funding of the Lib Dem house building programme will be part of a planned £130 billion package of infrastructure investment, while Labour will pull from a £150 billion Social Transformation Fund.
Roy Wakeman, Chair of the Confederation of Timber Industries, said:
“The timber industry welcomes the recent statements of intent from political parties in their manifestos to significantly expand housebuilding programmes over the course of the next Parliament.
“We now call for all parties to take their commitments a step further and pledge to build these homes using low carbon materials, which will help drive and accelerate change in the construction industry to achieve its carbon emissions targets.
“Construction is directly responsible for 10% of all GHG emissions in the UK, but if we substitute energy-intensive materials like cement and steel for sustainable timber we can shift the needle.
“As was made clear in the recent report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Timber Industries, timber is the only proven solution which can allow us to build houses quicker and to higher quality standards, all the while lowering our carbon emissions.
“This has been called the first ‘climate change election’, and as an industry we are advocating for any major new house building programmes initiated by the UK Government in 2020 to be tied to the UK’s zero carbon targets.
“We strongly encourage all of the political parties to get behind the recommendations of the APPG and embrace solutions which will tackle both our housing and climate crises.”
Contact the CTI if you have any questions about this update please contact 07921 726212 or [email protected]
Notes to editor
Independent research shows if timber were used to build 270,000 new homes per year this would store 3,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
You can read and download the APPG for the Timber Industries report, ‘How the timber industries can help solve the housing crisis’ on our website.
The timber supply chain contributes approximately £10 billion to the economy and employs around 200,000 people in the UK.
About the CTI
The Confederation of Timber Industries (CTI) is an umbrella organisation representing the UK's timber supply chain from forest to end of life recycling, including producers, manufacturers and distributors of timber. Find more info on our website: www.cti-timber.org
