Planning Application Approvals on the Rise – Great News for Building Trade

A leading construction industry body has revealed a large increase in the number of planning approvals; a key indicator of economic growth.

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) released their latest Housing Pipeline report last week that revealed a 49% increase in planning approvals across England during the second quarter of 2013. Whilst this represents a 9% decrease on quarter one of 2013, the half year figure versus 2012 is up 16,053 approvals, representing an increase of 26%. This national picture of recovery is matched with figures in Duchy Timber’s back yard; Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.

In the South West, the actual number of permissions granted by local councils reached 4,519, up 22.7% from 3,682 in quarter two of 2012. This also marks a very healthy rise from this figure’s lowest ebb of only 2,506 homes in quarter two of 2009.

Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the HomeBuilders Federation, said:

“The overall trend in residential permissions is very positive. It reflects house builders’ increasing confidence in the market and also the positive principles of the new planning system. With Help to Buy forging ahead strongly and developers looking to increase output, we need to see the increase sustained.”

There was however a marked reservation in the tone of the report and the accompanying press release, positive though the figures might appear:

“Despite the increase in permissions granted, we are still well short of the 220,000 permissions required annually to meet housing need and all parties need to work closely together to ensure we see continuous and steady increases moving forward”, said Mr. Baseley.

The figure that Mr. Baseley is quoting is the amount of annual demand projected by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in their most recent ‘Household Projections’ report in April this year. The latest figures show that the number of households in the period 2011-21 will grow by over 220,000 per year – down on the previous estimate of 232,000. Read together, these two reports show that demand could sustain a further 27% growth in new projects, great news for an industry that is recovering from one of the biggest recessions in history.

In the South West region, 27% growth would represent 5,279 more homes built every year. Whilst controversial for some, this increased industry would create hundreds of much needed jobs directly in the industry and yet more in associated sectors like that occupied by Duchy Timber in Cornwall and Devon.

The report is based upon analysis of housing projects being tracked by researchers at Glenigan. The firm's Economics Director, Allan Wilén, said:

“The current strengthening in housing market activity points to a further potential rise in planning approvals during the second half of the year as house builders bring forward sites for development during 2014.”

FSC Friday: It’s been a great summer in the Westcountry

As it is FSC Friday, “the annual celebration of responsible forestry”, Duchy Timber thought we would celebrate by taking stock of the best summer season this company has ever had. In case you are not aware, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international, non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting responsible management of the world’s forests. Watch this video to find out more:

Duchy Timber makes an ongoing effort to continuously improve the sustainable sourcing of its saw-logs and imported products. The company is registered with the FSC and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) programmes. As a result, Duchy Timber sources 70% of its timber from registered sustainable woodland.

These efforts in conjunction with campaigns like Grown in Britain ensure that local, national and international sustainability is addressed when you purchase Duchy Timber products.

In the Westcountry it’s hard to forget how lucky we are to live and work in such a beautiful part of the world. Cornwall and Devon share a fantastic countryside.

Of course, it’s not so long ago that we were cursing one of the longest, coldest and wettest winters on record, but wasn't that glorious summer sun worth the wait? We've certainly been busy down at the sawmill this year, supplying more customers with more products to make 2013 our best year to date.

You may remember from earlier blog posts throughout the winter and early spring that we were busy creating a new range of garden furniture to complement the pieces that people already know us for. We didn't tell you the whole story... Whilst designing new garden furniture pieces for the first time for almost a decade, we were busy with an even bigger project that has proven to be a great success; one that has created new jobs, new demand for home grown timber from the Southwest and has brought new customers to Duchy Timber.

The company last made its own sheds and summerhouses around 2003 and in the intervening time between then and 2012 we sold sheds built by other local companies. Whilst these sheds were a good value, local product, it was decided that if Duchy Timber were to build its own sheds and summerhouses, they would need to be amongst the best sheds and summerhouses available.

Chris Maynard, our new Marketing Coordinator was tasked with conducting market research to see what kind of specifications and prices are available locally and nationally and how our competitors deal with delivery and erection. He found that there is a wide range of prices and specifications available and that there are many solutions to the issue of delivery and erection in a customer’s garden. A strategy was formulated, a specification created and a launch at the Royal Cornwall Show was agreed.

We looked back through the archive and found that the old plans had been discarded at some point in the last ten years, so the company got to work with some CAD software and began designing the cornerstone of the new range, the 2.4m x 1.8m apex shed and a 3.0m x 2.4m summerhouse.

Soon the Royal Cornwall Show was upon us and over 20 summerhouse and shed orders were taken in all shapes and sizes, along with a great number of orders for our new and existing garden furniture ranges.

Duchy Timber at the Royal Cornwall Show.

Overall the show was our most successful ever and the interest, hype and enquiries generated by this one event has driven and extended our summer season through to the middle of November!

We won’t be resting on our laurels either; new products and new opportunities across the Southwest region will be coming along during 2014. Watch this space!

Quarter 1 New Home Registrations Reach Five Year High

First quarter data from the National House-Building Council (NHBC) has shown that new home registrations are up 22% over 2012.

This positive picture is widely spread across England & Wales; however Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man have seen negative growth to the tune of 3.67%, 8.58% and 31.58% respectively. Taken alone, England posted some even healthier numbers with every single region posting positive growth.

This positive growth isn’t entirely isolated to London and the South East as some might expect, in fact, without London, the South East saw the most anaemic growth rate at only 0.46%. Merseyside saw the largest percentage gain at 74.25% from a relatively low base of only 369 new registrations in 2012. There are early signs that this increase may continue through 2013 and into 2014 with several large-scale social housing developments being announced in the past few weeks.

Other large percentage changes were seen in East & West Midlands (32.60% & 44.38% respectively) and in the Eastern region (28.76%). Even here in the South West, where a regional housing shortage was nationally publicised even before the recession hit in 2008, an increase of 5.98% was seen.

Steve Catt, NHBC Director for England said:

"This year’s Q1 figures were buoyed by the Government’s £2.2billion Affordable Homes Programme which aims to deliver 170,000 new homes by April 2015; the figures also show that current Government schemes such as NewBuy and Funding for Lending are now helping to boost the industry, while the landmark Battersea Power Station redevelopment also contributed over 800 new registrations.The under supply of new homes is still clearly a huge issue for the industry but this promising start to 2013 certainly gives the sector reason to be optimistic for the year ahead."

Outside of England, Wales saw a very healthy increase of 20.16% in new house registrations. Peter Watton, NHBC Director for Wales said:

“This noticeable increase can be attributed to the completion of a number of stalled sites across the country over the last few months being replaced by new sites. These signs of growth in various regions indicate that this promising start of the year can be maintained.”

The negative growth seen outside of England and Wales was met with a positive spin. Neil Jefferson, Director of the NHBC Foundation said:

“In Northern Ireland, a market that was particularly badly hit in the financial crisis, people are feeling better about site visits and sales...We are seeing a sustained increase in the intention to build. Builders are getting more confident.”

Overall there is much to be positive about. A general return of confidence is a good sign that the industry has turned a corner and is heading back to the level of building seen at the beginning of 2007.

At Duchy Timber we are seeing a very similar level of growth and can see the remainder of 2013 continue to grow at a similar rate. A good thing too as the Future Homes Commission, set up by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), has said the country needs 300,000 new homes annually. In recent years, the house building industry got closest to this target in 2007 when it built approximately 200,000 homes. Last year the total number of registrations was 104,514.

Grown in Britain will Bring Commitment to ‘Buy British Wood Products’

The majority of Duchy Timber's garden furniture is made from British Timber grown within 100miles of our sawmill in Mid-Cornwall.

Last week the Chief Executive of the Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor) launched an exciting new programme to strengthen the supply chain and promote the use of British timber more widely.

The need for the Grown in Britain programme was identified in last year’s Independent Panel on Forestry and their Final Report in July 2012. It said:

“Recommendation 18: We urge Government, woodland owners and businesses to seize the opportunity provided by woodlands to grow our green economy by strengthening the supply chain, and promoting the use of wood more widely across our society and economy. These and other actions should be set out in a Wood Industry Action Plan.”

Supported by Defra, The Forestry Commission, Confor, the Building Research Establishment (BRE), the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF), along with several major civil engineering firms and retailers, the programme gathered 50 of the supporting organisations together last Friday in London.

Confor Chief Executive Stuart Goodall said:

“We wanted to get these industry customers to express their commitment to Grown in Britain and buying British wood products, so the business in the supply chain can take that on board and start to consider what they can do to bring more products to the market,”

At Duchy Timber, we have made a conscious effort to source the best timber from within the Southwest region. We have cultivated excellent working relationships with harvesting contractors and landowners alike to ensure that our first-rate supply is maintained and that these partners in the supply chain are assured of our capacity and our on-going development.

A Grown in Britain week will be held on October 14th – 20th, with timber industry supply chain companies encouraged to open their doors to their communities to educate and enthuse them about the benefits and environmental credentials of wood products. This forms part of a key focus of Grown in Britain - creating a wood and forestry culture amongst the British general public. At Duchy Timber we plan to participate in the Grown in Britain week by having an open day on Saturday 19th October. Further details will follow in the next few months.

Part of the programme’s on-going support for the industry will see Stuart Goodall chair a ‘supply side’ panel consisting of timber processors, woodland owners and managers, forestry trade associations and partnerships in a position to change how woodland management is perceived by land owners, consumers and other parts of society. This group will ‘translate’ the requirements of the demand side panel into action in our forests and woodlands.

I’m sure that the rest of the industry shares Duchy Timber’s enthusiasm for this new programme. We will keep a close eye on future developments and hope that the programme makes some great progress in the coming months.

Home-grown sawn timber sector bucks recessionary trend

Despite rain and recession, Duchy Timber Limited has seen a really great start to 2013. It’s great to hear that we’re not the only ones!

A log delivery at the Duchy Timber sawmill in Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

The following article comes courtesy of the Timber Trades Journal (TTJ): http://www.ttjonline.com/“The UK softwood sawmilling market is one of few industry sectors to register solid growth in the last few years.” This is according to the Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor). The comment was made by Confor chairman George Webb at the organisation's industry dinner, attended by people including Paul Wheelhouse MSP, Scotland's Minister for Environment and Climate Change.

“Against a background of the current economic climate and outlook, to be increasing wood production and wood conversion, to see continued significant capital investment and see increased exports of value added products, from our sector is very promising,” he said.

Mr Webb told the audience that the UK’s home-grown sawn softwood sector had seen its market share of the overall UK sawn timber sector increase from 20% to 40% during the last five years. But he admitted there remained a “massive challenge” as to how the industry would maintain and increase its output from the resources available.“The lack of commercial conifer planting over the last two decades is very apparent and will reflect significantly on future wood availability.” He said Confor was working on an action plan to tackle this challenge.

Horse Meat Scandal Raises Questions for Timber Industry

The CEO of the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) recently drew inspiration from the food industry to send a warning to TTF members.

If you have been in Europe for the past month or so, you will have almost certainly seen a huge amount of coverage afforded to the discovery of horsemeat masquerading as processed beef. John White, Chief Executive of the TTF took a recent opportunity at the Western Timber Association annual dinner to make the link between the now beleaguered European food industry and the continent’s timber industry.

On Sunday 3^rd March 2013, the most important piece of legislation seen within the timber industry for many years came into effect. The EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) is the European Commission’s attempt to combat illegal logging activities around the globe. By closing off the lucrative European Union to illegal loggers, it is thought that this action alone will begin an unstoppable decline to their activities and better protection of the world’s forests.

Mr White explained: “At its heart, the EUTR is about traceability and knowing that what we are buying is what it is supposed to be,” he said. “And to be frank, we have not always been clear about what's gone into the millions of cubic metres of wood products we import each year. Take plywood - a term that covers many species of timber. Where do they come from? Have we always known? Well the EUTR means we have to.”

The consequences of not taking the EUTR seriously, he said, were clearly laid out in the horsemeat scandal.

“It has meant reputational and financial damage to brands, damage to the processed food industry and ultimately to the food sector as a whole. And for ‘food’, under the EUTR you can just as easily read ‘wood’.”

Mr. White had a very clear message to members of the timber industry who thought that the EUTR would pass them by and that they would ‘get away with it’: “And we have to say to anyone who does not meet the highest standards in terms of traceability and supply chain transparency, membership of the TTF is not for you,” he said. “There is too much at stake for all of us to take any other view.”

At Duchy Timber we are taking the EUTR very seriously and have been taking extra care whilst we prepare for our Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) accreditations during the first quarter of 2013.

David Adam, Managing Director and owner of Duchy Timber said: “The vast majority of the home-grown timber that we process and use in our manufactured products comes from within the Southwest of the UK. In a lot of cases we know the location of the standing timber; we know the land owner and we know the harvesting contractors personally.” Mr. Adam continued: “Also, the imported timber that we buy in our merchanting operation is almost exclusively Scandinavian and is either FSC or PEFC accredited as being from sustainable sources.”

Karl Avery, Duchy Timber’s Commercial Manager is the one responsible for the majority of the company’s large product purchases for wholesale. He said: “We carefully balance the necessity of providing a range of high quality product to our customers, for a competitive price without cutting corners and buying sheets from unsustainable sources. We work closely with our suppliers and in most cases the manufacturer directly so that we can be as confident as we can be that we are compliant with the EUTR.”

To find out more about Duchy Timber go to our website at: www.duchytimber.co.uk

To find out more about the EU Timber Regulation, follow the link to the European Commission’s page on the subject here: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/timber_regulation.htm

Do You Know Where Your Garden Furniture Comes From?

Duchy Timber's log park contains sustainably sourced timber from Cornwall, Devon & Somerset.

With modern global trade and the UK’s abandonment of manufacturing, your garden furniture could come from anywhere. Some places a lot less reputable than others.

Through global industry accreditations such as Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), there are ways for you as a consumer to make a more informed choice when it comes to purchasing your new wooden garden furniture.

Cornwall and Devon benefit from huge areas of woodland and luckily has a well-established forestry and timber industry that can not only sustainably manage these reserves to high standards that are globally-recognised, but can also process that harvested crop into high value products for construction and agriculture as well as your home & garden.

Obviously, timber from your local community, instead of timber that has been shipped thousands of miles around the world, has far better environmental credentials. But local timber is not just better for the environment, it also gives you piece of mind that it is benefiting ancient local industries and trades. Just like the minced beef for your family’s spaghetti Bolognese this Saturday or the milk on your corn flakes this morning; buying local is good for you, your community, the local economy and the environment.

In 1958, the Duchy of Cornwall set up a sawmill at Downend near Lostwithiel. Now owned by a forester with more than twenty years industry experience, the sawmill is now one of the largest in the south west and is the beating heart of Duchy Timber Limited. Duchy Timber garden furniture, gates and fencing products are made from wood that is sustainably felled within Cornwall, Devon and Somerset and are handmade by experienced craftsmen using traditional techniques.