Tom heads to the Houses of Parliament with Confor

In December, Tom was in Parliament as part of a Confor delegation, helping to make the case for British grown wood and its role in supporting the Government’s house building ambitions. Alongside other industry leaders, he met with politicians to promote the National Wood Strategy and to underline the need for increased woodland creation, improved woodland management, and smarter, more efficient use of home grown timber.

The National Wood Strategy sets out how the UK can use more British timber to meet housing, carbon, and economic objectives in a joined up way. It recognises wood as a strategic material not just for construction, but for reducing embodied carbon, supporting rural economies, and improving long term land management. The strategy calls for stronger alignment between forestry, manufacturing, and construction policy, alongside clearer signals to designers, specifiers, and developers that responsibly sourced British timber should play a far greater role in the built environment. Crucially, it focuses on delivery, growing the right trees, processing them domestically, and using them intelligently in buildings rather than treating timber as a purely environmental talking point.

This work goes well beyond the interests of any single business. By championing British timber at a national level, Tom and his peers are helping to strengthen the UK forestry and wood using sector, supporting rural jobs, increasing domestic supply, and reducing reliance on imported materials. With the Minister for Nature recently endorsing the Strategy, it is encouraging to see early signs that this collective effort is beginning to translate into policy momentum.