Drive to boost forestry only taking off north of the Border

Driven by government incentives and environmental policy, interest in establishing new forests has been high across the whole of the UK – but has only been translated into action in Scotland.

According to a report launched yesterday the timber industry faces a bright future – but if there is to be a substantial increase in forest cover in the UK the momentum needs to spread to England and Wales.

The latest edition of the UK Forest Market Report, produced by Tilhill Forestry and John Clegg & Co, highlighted the fact that over the past year 85 per cent of new planting had been in Scotland – and that the country had exceeded its planting target of 10,000 ha this year, with 11,210 ha of new woodland.

The report also revealed that the value of commercial forestry coming onto the market during the course of the past twelve months had risen by 23 per cent.

And while Peter Whitfield, Business Development Director for Tilhill Forestry admitted that this reflected the high quality of the woodland coming onto the market, the underlying rise was indisputable, with the figures suggesting that the value of properties had grown by 90 per cent since 2016.

Fenning Welstead, of John Clegg & Co, said that despite a softening of timber prices this year, forest property values had not followed suit – a reflection, he believed of the trend towards renewable resources and a move to a low carbon economy.

He said such assets were popular in investment portfolios, along with opportunities to integrate renewable energy and commercial forestry crops: