When the government last summer announced its plans to ban combustible materials from the walls of residential high-rise buildings, it prompted an immediate outcry from the growing band of developers, contractors, designers and manufacturers involved in using cross-laminated timber. Since its first use in the UK in 2004, the proponents of this form of engineered timber – known as CLT – have claimed it can hugely speed up construction, improve site safety and save money – at the same time as it is saving the world from climate change.

As uptake has grown in recent years, so the structural properties of CLT have come to the fore, allowing taller and taller timber structures, including a number of high-profile projects above six storeys – the height the combustibles ban kicks in. Fears were raised that the CLT was – effectively – being banned by the government as an accidental side-effect of the Grenfell tragedy. One of the leading proponents, Anthony Thistleton, founder of architect Waugh Thistleton, which designs virtually all its projects in timber, said that last summer’s announcement could prompt a collapse of CLT use in the UK, taking the country from “a world leader to a backwater”.

…