Friday, December 12, 2025
The UK’s timber industry is placing a spotlight on excellence and quality assurance, with the Wood Protection Association (WPA) officially launching its 2026 Wood Protection Awards, annual dinner, and critical industry conference. Scheduled for May 6th and 7th, 2026, at the historic Oulton Hall Hotel in Leeds, the two-day event will serve as a vital platform for the entire treated wood value chain to address market complexities, celebrate technical innovation, and reinforce consumer trust in durable wood products.
The industry gathering is particularly timely. With global supply chains under pressure, regulatory landscapes shifting (especially concerning chemical preservatives and flame retardants), and the construction sector increasingly prioritising certified, high-performance, and sustainable materials, the treated wood segment is at a crucial inflection point.
The centerpiece of the event is the half-day conference on Thursday, May 7th, titled ‘Preserving Confidence in Wood.’ This theme directly addresses the core mission of the WPA: ensuring that treated wood products meet the highest standards of performance, compliance, and longevity.
WPA Chairman, Steve Young, emphasised the importance of the conference’s focus, stating: “It’s a unique opportunity to meet and talk about industry standards, good practice, and regulatory compliance, and hear the latest news about WPA’s strategy to grow demand for treated wood.”
The conference is expected to feature discussions on several key industry challenges and opportunities:
Regulatory compliance: Navigating new requirements in the UK and Europe regarding biocides and flame retardant chemicals, ensuring ongoing market access.
Quality assurance: Strategies for maintaining and demonstrating product fitness-for-purpose in critical applications like fencing, decking, and structural timber, especially in a market recovering from pandemic-era quality lapses.
Innovation in treatment: Exploring the growth of non-biocidal treatments, such as wood modification (e.g., thermal and acetylation processes), which enhance durability while meeting stringent environmental targets.
The future of timber in construction: Promoting the role of preservative and flame-retardant treated wood in mass timber construction, particularly in the growing commercial and multi-story residential markets where fire safety and lifespan are paramount.
The annual dinner and awards presentation, held on the evening of Wednesday, May 6th, are designed to be a showcase for the “best about the wood protection industry,” recognising achievements across the value chain. Non-WPA members are specifically encouraged to submit nominations for two of the primary categories, broadening the scope of recognition across the wider timber community.
The 2026 WPA Awards will honour excellence in four key areas:
Project of the Year: This highly competitive award celebrates outstanding construction or engineering projects, either in the UK or internationally, that utilise wood industrially pre-treated with a preservative, a flame retardant, or a wood modification process. The award recognises innovation, scale, and the successful application of protected wood.
Treated Wood Champion: Focused on human capital, this award recognises an individual’s exceptional commitment to personal development, education, and contribution to advancing treated wood knowledge within their organisation or among customers.
WPA Benchmark Wood Treater of the Year: This conferred award is a testament to operational excellence. It is selected by the WPA Benchmark quality scheme’s audit team to recognise members who exceed the mere compliance requirements of WPA-approved product standards, demonstrating exceptional treatment plant maintenance, quality systems, staff competence, and commitment to fitness for purpose.
Best Kept Treatment Plant: Acknowledging the often-unsung heroes, this award focuses on the standards of cleanliness, safety, efficiency, and meticulous record-keeping maintained by treatment plant operators. It applies across all accreditation categories of the WPA Benchmark quality assurance schemes.
The awards serve not only as recognition but as a crucial tool for raising the professional standards across the entire preservative-treated wood sector, tying industry success directly to verifiable quality metrics.
WPA Chairman Steve Young acknowledged that hosting such a significant event would be “impossible” without corporate backing, especially during what he termed “challenging times for our industry.” The success of the 2026 events is secured thanks to the support of key industry players.
Main Sponsors for the 2026 events include major suppliers of wood protection chemicals and services:
Additional focused sponsorships demonstrate broad industry engagement, with Bond Timber sponsoring the annual WPA Golf Competition and BSW supporting the Wine and Cheese Tasting Challenge, enhancing the networking opportunities. Fencing News magazine will also act as a sponsor for the ‘Preserving Confidence in Wood’ conference, highlighting the central role of treated timber in the outdoor construction and landscaping segments.
This level of sponsorship underscores the industry’s collective commitment to promoting the use of correctly treated wood and ensuring the long-term viability and reputation of the sector in the wider UK construction economy. As wood increasingly becomes recognised as a low-carbon, sustainable building material, the work of the WPA in assuring its durability is more critical than ever to ensure it lives up to its expected lifespan.
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Tags: Timber Industry Awards, Treated Wood, wood modification, wood preservatives, Wood Protection Association (WPA), WPA Benchmark
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