24 July 2007

Timber Industry Summit in Edinburgh

The Chairmen of the leading timber trade organisations have agreed that the industry should work more closely together, to avoid duplication of effort and deliver more effective outputs at greater value for members. During a two day meeting at the Norton House Hotel, Edinburgh, the Chairmen covered a whole range of topics and agreed action plans to make progress on the three main areas of opportunity which they identified.

These included:
• a more structured and co-ordinated political lobbying approach for the whole industry,
• the need to develop an industry-wide approach to both training and education, and
• the need to continue to support, the extremely successful Wood for Good promotional campaign with both funds and effort.

Working groups have been set up to take these initiatives forward. The group will meet again early in the New Year to monitor and evaluate progress.

The organisations represented at the meeting which took place on 28-29 June 2007 were:
• Neil Donaldson – Timber Trade Federation
• Richard Burbidge – TRADA
• Tony Willis – Confederation of Forest Industries
• Gordon Callender – UK Forest Products Association
• Jan Soderlind – Wood for Good
• Pauline Kelly – British Woodworking Federation
• Steve Roebuck – Wood Panel Industries Federation
• Charles Grant – Centre for Timber Engineering
Stewart Delgarno (UK Timber Frame Association) was invited, but was not able to attend.