GiB Week25 makes a landmark announcement to transform opportunities for homegrown timber across the construction sector

 Friday, October 24, 2025

In a move that directly addresses key priorities in the government’s Timber in Construction Roadmap, Minister for Nature, Mary Creagh, confirmed that the Grown in Britain (GiB) certification scheme has been officially accepted as meeting Category A status under the Government’s Timber Procurement Policy (TPP). This designation is a transformative victory for the domestic timber industry, placing the UK’s unique, provenance-verified scheme on equal regulatory footing with international certifications like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) for the first time. For architects, developers, and specifiers, this removes a significant, longstanding barrier to the use of sustainable, low-carbon British wood in some of the nation’s largest building projects.

Removing barriers to public procurement

The Category A recognition is the culmination of a thorough and rigorous assessment process. The TPP requires that all timber and wood products procured by the government must originate from an independently verifiable legal and sustainable source. Category A status signifies that a certification scheme, through its robust standards and audit trail, provides a standalone, unequivocal assurance of compliance with these strict requirements.

Crucially, GiB is the only certification scheme specifically designed to verify UK provenance, tracking timber from the forest through the supply chain to the finished product. This ability to guarantee that wood has been both sustainably and legally grown and harvested in the UK is a powerful tool for construction firms looking to reduce their embodied carbon footprint and shorten complex international supply chains.

As Dougal Driver, CEO of Grown in Britain, stated, “Our robust certification now has official verification at the highest level. This will transform the fortunes of current and potential certificate holders.” The designation immediately grants GiB-certified timber products full access to public sector projects, from government buildings to schools and major infrastructure—a market segment previously challenging for domestic suppliers.

The government’s Timber in Construction Roadmap explicitly outlines the strategy to safely increase the use of sustainable timber in the built environment to help achieve the UK’s Net Zero 2050 goal. The built environment is responsible for approximately 25% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions, and timber, as a material that sequesters and stores carbon for the building’s lifetime, is a core component of the decarbonisation strategy.

The Category A acceptance directly supports several key priorities of this roadmap:

1. Strengthening the domestic supply chain: Increased demand from government and major commercial projects will drive investment in the UK’s forestry, wood processing, and manufacturing sectors. This not only creates rural green jobs but also builds a more resilient and self-sufficient supply chain, reducing the UK’s heavy reliance on imported timber.
2. Reducing embodied carbon: By making it easier to specify UK-grown and processed timber, the decision incentivises materials with a lower transportation footprint compared to imports. This contributes directly to lowering the overall whole-life carbon of construction projects.
3. Promoting sustainable forest management: The new demand signal helps to underwrite the cost of active, sustainable management across the UK’s approximately 1.3 million hectares of certified woodland, ensuring the long-term health and productivity of the nation’s forest resource.

The construction industry has widely celebrated the news, recognising its practical impact on material specification and project risk.

“This removes any barriers to using GiB certified timber in the construction industry,” noted Justyna Wilkinson, Associate Architect at Stride Treglown. “It adds more support for the Government’s TiC Roadmap, meaning more confidence in using British timber materials across both sustainably focused and wider commercial projects.” The explicit government backing eliminates any regulatory ambiguity that might have deterred risk-averse specifiers in the past.

The new status acts as a powerful lever for change. Guy Phillips, CEO at Heritage Highland Woodworks, highlighted the direct market effect: “This recognition comes at a pivotal moment. It enables architects, material specifiers and others to request UK timber in their construction projects, which drives demand and ultimately leads to better outcomes for UK forestry and homegrown timber.”

In a sector focused on efficiency, sustainability, and de-risking supply, the Category A status provides the definitive validation needed to move British timber from a niche material to a mainstream, preferred choice for the future of construction. It is a clear signal that the UK is serious about capitalising on the economic and environmental benefits of its natural capital in the push toward a net-zero built environment.

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Tags: Category A status, construction materials, domestic supply chain, Grown in Britain, public procurement