Increasing collaboration with insurers, lenders, and warranty providers
OUR MISSION
Abridged from the Timber in Construction Roadmap
This joint committee seeks to build stronger collaboration with insurers, lenders, and warranty providers to address concerns around the use of engineered mass timber. This is covers not only life-safety compliance, but also on broader risks such as fire, water damage, durability, repairability, and business continuity following an incident.
To increase confidence, this group aims to highlight and collect robust evidence of the long-term performance of mass timber systems and greater transparency through shared data and international experience. This builds on initiatives like the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook which are helping establish clearer guidance on risk profiling and mitigation.
Government and industry are now working together through this group to improve collaboration, including exploring the creation of a risk register of anonymised performance data and fostering stronger dialogue with the insurance sector. These steps aim to reduce uncertainty, streamline access to finance and insurance, and support wider adoption of mass timber in construction.
LATEST UPDATES
01 May 2025
One of the most common barriers for timber buildings can be insurance – but with rafts of new guidance being produced and new collaborations improving the information available to insurers, the Insurance Working Group is supporting positive change.
From the industry, key guidance now includes the Commercial Timber Guidebook from Elliott Wood, developed to address the common concerns that face timber construction, as well as the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook. Both help demonstrate best practice for building with timber.
Now, the group is very focused on addressing the issues of data on the performance of mass timber buildings with the development of a new database with Timber Development UK to confidentially share at a high level information on the long term performance of timber buildings.
CHAIR: DOMINIC LION
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GLOBAL COMPLEX RISKS, GALLAGHER
Dominic specialises in supporting large, often pan-European real estate owners, investors and developers with insurance solutions for complex risks, as well as advising and designing tailored programmes to address real estate-related insurance challenges. With a passion for sustainable construction, he has been a long time leader in mass timber insurance, arranging insurance placements for a number of significant mass timber schemes.
