Recommendation 25

The Government must invest now in further research and safety testing on the use of structural timber. The outcome of such research must inform a review of all relevant building regulations so as to render them properly applicable to modern timber materials and to ensure that fire safety regulations can take account of how modern timber materials behave in fire. The Government’s response to the consultation on proposed amendments to the combustible materials ban must now include clarification of the Government’s position of structural timber in the ban on combustible materials. The Government’s response to the consultation should be issued at the latest before the House rises for the 2022 summer recess.