The next item is the statement from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs on growing the timber industry: jobs and green growth. I call on the Cabinet Secretary, Huw Irranca-Davies. 

Thank you very much, Llywydd. I'm delighted to address Members ahead of our consultation on proposals for Wales’s first timber industrial strategy. 

Growing the forestry sector will offer a wide range of green jobs in Wales. It'll help us build more sustainable housing and it will boost our progress towards decarbonisation. Managing forests sustainably for timber production is a prime example of green and sustainable economic growth. When trees are harvested, carbon sequestered when they were growing remains stored in the timber. When that timber is then put to long-term use, like in making furniture or in building houses, then that carbon stays locked away, not released into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the harvested crop of trees is replanted, sequestering more carbon, and the cycle continues.

Not only this, but the wood economy offers real opportunities for foresters, timber processors and manufacturers. There is a whole range of jobs and skills that flow right along the supply chain, from forest nurseries through planting, harvesting and milling, to, indeed, designing and constructing the end products that sustain people’s livelihoods. And I've got to say, this is especially true for people living in rural Wales.

The Welsh forestry sector includes family-owned businesses with a predominantly rural base, and they provide valuable employment opportunities for local communities. Last year, as I've mentioned, I visited Teifi Timber Products. Their sawmill and timber merchants in Llanllwni in Carmarthenshire source timber as locally as possible, and they offer skilled jobs to local people in their rural community. Apprenticeships in the forestry and low-carbon construction sector are crucial in supporting this transition to a sustainable economy, providing real opportunities for talented people to prosper.

As we transition to a stronger, fairer and greener Wales, the forestry, timber and construction sectors offer varied careers, including highly paid jobs. The consultation sets out proposals to improve recruitment and retention of an appropriately skilled, diverse and flexible workforce that can adapt to change. In fact, businesses like Teifi Timber Products show what the wood economy can achieve and why it’s so important that we support its growth in a strategic way. 

By working together, we can support those local supply chains that will boost the potential value that we gain from our timber, all the way from forest to product. By working in partnership with industry, Wales can make the most of the opportunities for making and selling forest products from renewable, sustainable and responsibly managed forests. We will support the development and the adoption of new products, processes, technologies and promote geographical co-operation and shared resources, where appropriate.

As well as the obvious contribution timber can make towards this Government’s priority of boosting jobs and green growth, it contributes directly to our commitment to building sustainable and affordable homes. Timber allows us to build high performance, durable, healthy and sustainable homes, including social housing. I’m really looking forward to visiting a social housing development built with Welsh timber in Penrhyndeudraeth with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government later this very week.   

Building homes with timber offers huge opportunities for people but also for the planet. As the world looks to achieve net zero, timber, a low embodied carbon building material, can replace high embodied carbon materials like concrete. Timber and wood fibre offer opportunities for alternative methods of construction, panelised solutions and off-site manufacture. These approaches reduce the carbon footprint compared with traditional on-site construction methods and they can be built quicker, which will help us provide more social housing for those who need it now.

To expand the production of quality Welsh timber to fulfil the growing demand for low-carbon timber-framed social homes, we need to take action, and that’s why I’m so very pleased to be launching this consultation. Let's be clear—Wales already has established companies leading the way, such as SO Modular in Neath and Kronospan at their base in Chirk. As this consultation document shows, we can drive more growth by promoting innovation, designing and manufacturing wood-based products with increased value, extending the durability and climate resilience. Looking to the future, in a world that urgently needs to decarbonise, it is clear that timber will have a crucial role to play.

The UK currently imports much of our timber, and global demand is expected to quadruple by 2050. This means there is a huge potential for growth. It also means that, in order for us to have a reliable and sustainable future timber supply, we'll have to grow more Welsh timber, increase our circular approaches, reuse and recycle, balanced with importing in a globally responsible way. Wales is primed to make the most of this opportunity. Wales offers favourable growing conditions for many productive species, both softwood and hardwood. We need to capitalise on this, and improve understanding, through the supply chain, of all the potential ways that homegrown timber can be used. 

As we consider the future and the role that timber will have to play, we must also consider what that the future growing climate will look like. The productivity of forests may be affected itself by the impacts of climate change. And let’s be clear: Wales is already experiencing changing climatic conditions and those more frequent extreme weather events, just as we saw with storm Darragh, which brought down countless trees right across the country. That’s why the timber industrial strategy sets out specific proposals to futureproof our forests. We need to choose species that will remain productive in the future, ensuring access to genetically diverse and climate-appropriate stock. We need a reliable supply of forest genetic materials, including seed orchards, and we need sufficient capacity in out forest nurseries. This way, we can ensure that our timber forests and all the jobs that rely on them are secure and resilient.

It is also very important for us to note that the timber industrial strategy is not taking place in a vacuum. At the end of November last year, the UK-level tree planting taskforce was launched, to oversee the planting of millions of trees across the UK to meet our net zero targets. The taskforce, chaired by the forestry ministers from the four nations, recognises trees as essential for providing sustainable timber and a whole range of other benefits to nature and to people. But of course, timber security is not solely reliant on virgin timber. There is already a healthy market for recycled wood fibre and potential to reclaim more timber than we currently retrieve, for example, from demolished buildings.

Growing forests takes time, but there are significant short-term gains to be had. I am really encouraged by the delivery of joined-up initiatives across Government portfolios, such as Home-Grown Homes 2. The Tai ar y Cyd pattern book for social homes, launched only last week, shows housing and forestry working together towards more sustainable homes. Expansion of the Welsh Government’s flexible skills programme to include the forestry and timber sectors means businesses can access grant support to upskill their workforce. We have to continue this close collaboration as we move from development of the strategy into making it a reality on the ground.

I would really encourage wide engagement with this consultation. The resulting timber industrial strategy will be published later in the year, setting out a very clear road map for how Government and industry will work together to achieve a thriving wood-based economy in Wales, supporting growth and green jobs in both the forestry and timber sectors, helping build more sustainable social homes, and contributing to tackling the climate emergency.

Our forests should be in active, sustainable and diverse use, providing economic, environmental, social and cultural benefits to the people of Wales for many centuries to come. Thank you very much, Llywydd.  

I welcome the opportunity to respond to this statement on the development of Wales's first timber industrial strategy. While the ambitions outlined in the statement are commendable, Deputy First Minister, there are several areas that require greater clarity and decisive action to ensure their success.

The statement highlights Wales's favourable growing conditions for timber, and acknowledges the global demand for timber projected to quadruple by 2050. Despite this, the reliance on imports remains high, with 80 per cent of timber used in the UK sourced from abroad, and only 4 per cent of harvested Welsh timber processed for construction. This represents a significant underutilisation of Welsh resources. To address this, the Welsh Government must ensure that home-grown timber plays a central role in meeting the demand for sustainable housing, as you've outlined. But can you outline further and specific measures to prioritise Welsh timber in construction and reduce reliance on imports through the procurement process, for example?

There is potential for timber to replace high-carbon materials like concrete in construction, particularly in building sustainable housing, but how cost-effective is this? Also, the production and use of engineered timber products, such as glulam and wood fibre insulation must be expanded. The statement references the need for innovation and new technologies, which I welcome, but progress in this area has been slow. So, could the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on plans to support the development of value added timber products and their integration into the construction sector?

The statement also acknowledges the importance of skills and workforce development in supporting the transition to a sustainable economy. While the investment in forestry-related training is welcome, the scale of the skills gap in the sector requires a more comprehensive approach. With an ageing workforce and limited specialised training opportunities, collaboration with education providers is essential to expand training across the supply chain, from forest nurseries to advanced timber processing and low-carbon construction. So, what steps are being taken to engage with educational institutions and address the sector's workforce needs?

Going hand in glove with skills is the importance of local supply chains and partnerships, which has rightly been emphasised. However, tangible progress in this area remains limited. Strengthening the supply chain is critical to ensuring the economic benefits of the timber industry remain within Wales. So, what specific measures will be taken to foster stronger partnerships between forestry producers, processors and manufacturers, and to invest in local processing facilities? 

It would be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to once again raise the concerns of rural communities across Wales who have seen agricultural land purchased for their total afforestation in an effort for companies to greenwash, offset their emissions, while making no changes to their own business practices. This change of use of land is highly damaging to the local communities and has a negative impact on food production and security, so how does today's statement alleviate the fears of these communities who have seen this happen, or who may see this happen in the near future?

Finally, while a consultation is always welcome—we love a consultation here in Wales—the short time between the closure of the consultation in April and the publication of the timber industrial strategy in the summer doesn't leave much time for deliberating and taking into account the submissions. The sustainable farming scheme consultation had so many responses that time was taken to consider them. So, are you confident, Cabinet Secretary and Deputy First Minister, that you have enough time between the closure of the consultation and the launch of the strategy to fully incorporate and consider the feedback, and that the consultation isn't just a box-ticking exercise with the strategy already a fait accompli? Diolch, Llywydd.

Sam, thank you very much for that. Can I welcome what I think was your welcome for the consultation on the strategy? In fact, many of your questions anticipate not only the points that are made within the strategy but also the bringing forward of the strategy itself. So, local supply chains—I mentioned them in my opening remarks—the skills pipeline that we'll need to do as well. Procurement, by the way, is within the consultation as well, so we're looking forward to people bringing forward their views. But it's definitely the case that within the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023, there is potential within that now to strengthen it, because it does deal with not simply the lowest cost of procurement, but the wider goods environmentally, local economies, local communities et cetera as well. So, we're looking forward for those views being brought forward.

You touched on a lot of points that are actually outlined within the consultation itself. So, with your support, I would encourage everybody to feed in their views on the best way forward on those. There are ideas within the consultation, but let's hear what people have to say. Do I think we have enough time, then, to turn in the strategy? Yes. There's been a lot of work with stakeholders even leading up to this point, so going out to consultation allows that piece of work to be done that tests the ideas, tests their views—are we in the right place? And then we can refine and nuance it before we bring it forward. But recognising where we are with the carbon budget-setting process, as well as our ambitions on the timber strategy and woodland creation, we need to get on with this, we really do. So, we do have enough time, but let's urge people, actually, to come forward. There will, by the way, be a series of public stakeholder engagement events throughout the consultation. There will be independent analysis, then, of the consultation feedback. So, it won't be me making a gut-feeling reaction as a Minister in some short order. We'll do a proper analysis.

You mentioned skills and training, which I touched on in my opening remarks. Just to say as well, we'll also be undertaking a review of post-16 education to make sure that we've got that post-16 piece, in terms of forestry also in the right place. But there's a wider piece here about the development of skills out from people who are already working in the industry as well, but further education colleges and other training support providers will be able to help us in that.

There was a range of things you mentioned there about woodland creation and making sure that we make sure that whatever funding and support we are putting into it benefits the local community. Just to make clear, the woodland creation grants, for example, with us go directly to Welsh landowners in Wales to create woodland within Wales. One of the things we can't do, even though there aren't many examples, I've got to be clear, but there have been a couple of examples previously cited in this Senedd Chamber—what we can't do is stand in the way of individual Welsh landowners or farmers who then make a decision to do something on their land that you and I might say, 'That's wrong. That feels wrong in terms of what we're trying to do.' Sometimes they make their own commercial private decisions. But what we are making sure is that any public money that goes into this space is benefiting local communities and our woodland creation strategy as well.

But thanks for your support, and encourage people to put those points into the consultation.

May I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement? It's certainly one I welcome. This is a key issue, of course, for our economy, for the environment too, and is an issue where the Welsh Government, in my view, does need to show ambition and clarity of purpose if we are to meet our environmental objectives, and also, of course, to deliver sustainable economic growth. So, I do look forward to looking through the consultation—something that we haven’t had an opportunity to do to the extent we would have liked to to date—and I thank you for an early copy of that.  

There is a dilemma here, though, of course, isn't there, because we know that the Government are falling short of tree planting targets? So, clearly, it would be interesting to hear how you feel that this strategy will continue towards ramping up the achievement of those targets, but at the same time doing so in a way that doesn't leave us open, as we've heard, to some outside commercial interests that may well see an opportunity to take advantage of that. So, I'm just wondering whether you grapple with that in your consultation, or whether you have any thoughts, particularly on that issue. Incremental changes to payment rates and improving application processes are all positive, but maybe there are systemic barriers that need to be addressed as well within that equation, and much of it is identifying appropriate land et cetera.

Another one, of course, is, again—we come back to this—the capacity of Natural Resources Wales. Concerns from Confor and others about—. We know that the Welsh Government woodland estate holds a vital economic asset, yet timber volumes brought to market have consistently fallen below sustainable production levels. So, how will the Welsh Government and how will this strategy address the underutilisation of timber from the Government's woodland estate? And how will you ensure that Natural Resources Wales have the resources that they need to fulfil their role properly in this space?

Now, I appreciate that the statement is all about adding value, or very much about adding value to the produce, and I'd very much support efforts in that respect, but what does that look like in terms of a Government strategy? Will there be a route-map, or where are we going, in terms of an outcome following this? I know there will be a strategy, but are you looking at staging posts on that journey as part of an action plan, or anything that will come as a consequence?

Now, I would agree that there's a pressing need to reduce Wales’s dependency on timber imports, of course, because we know that they tend to increase carbon emissions, and they raise ethical concerns over habitat destruction and poor environmental standards abroad. So, what measures are being taken to reduce that dependency, particularly maybe in the shorter term, because longer term we hope that we will be more self-sustaining in that space? But we do need to promote ethical and sustainable production, both at home but also in terms of our imports.

And finally from me, I just want to ask about the national forest. Obviously, you mentioned earlier today that 100 sites have now achieved national forest status, but how do you plan to ensure that that initiative delivers tangible economic as well as environmental benefits? Is the national forest simply a symbolic environmental project, or do you foresee that meaningfully contribute to timber production, as well as biodiversity enhancement? Diolch, Llywydd.

Llyr, thank you very much indeed. Let me touch on the tree planting rates in response to you, first of all. The tree planting targets that are recommended by the Climate Change Committee were very challenging, but we're committed to working with them to ensure that those targets have that ambition but that they're also realistic for Wales, recognising that we have competing land pressures within our rural landscape as well. We acknowledge those multiple benefits, and we need to balance those as we strive to reach net zero by 2050. But what we do want to do, in this consultation and in the strategy that flows from it, is to encourage landowners to engage in a wide range of projects and collaborate with each other to deliver a diverse range of tree planting and woodland creation projects. Now, some of those will indeed fall within that value-added approach of the timber strategy, which can be used not only in sequestration as you plant them and so on, but actually into long-lasting products as well. Others will be different types of planting, and we're keen to see more use of tree planting for different reasons as well.

Statistics, the most recent we have, show that in the 2023-24 planting season, 640 hectares of woodland was created in Wales. It's similar to the average yearly rate of planting we have achieved over the last decade, but it is notably the third-highest rate in that period of time. But we know we've got to do more and go further, and that's part of what this is about. But this is about, as the consultation described, not only generating that quantum of home-grown product, of the right and diverse sort—softwoods and hardwoods that can go into deeply embedded carbon products, such as housing, such as furniture and so on—but it is also about having different types of planting that can give community benefits, nature benefits and biodiversity benefits as well. So, on a Wales basis, that is very much the approach that we are taking.

And just to say as well, we often kick ourselves and beat ourselves up in Wales about tree planting rates and what more we can do to increase them. We're not facing this challenge alone, I've got to say, across the UK, and that's why the UK trees taskforce has been established, to share good practice, see what the barriers are and see if we can work together to tear down those barriers to good, proper woodland creation in the right place. So, we're confident that Wales will benefit from that opportunity.

I touched on the point about not having some of those unintended consequences of people coming in from outside Wales and what have you. We need to be wary of that, without a doubt, there.

One of the things that the Welsh Government woodland estate, the forestry estate, that we have needs is not only to find those areas where we can plant and to get the business model right for that as well, but also to backfill this, actually, with a reliable supply of young trees to do this. So, again, part of this strategy is making sure that we have those restocking trees coming through. So, Natural Resources Wales had a competitive tender process back in 2022-23, and Maelor Forest Nurseries were awarded the contract for restocking. So, there are real benefits here if we get the supply chain right.

And the other aspect to say, of course, is that this doesn't stand on its own either in terms of woodland creation, which you mentioned. So, what we can do within the SFS, in the design of that now over the next few months, having got to that outline phase, is to now provide the right incentive for farmers who actually do want to do woodland creation—maybe for silviculture or agroforestry, maybe for shelterbelts, but actually to help us drive that forward. Some will benefit from this, will see the opportunity to diversify, not taking out prime productive pasture and so on, not taking out the ffriddoedd with the biodiversity and that, but, in the right place, they might say, 'We want to do this as well.' So, that's why I think we need to get on with this—consult, engage, see if we've got it just about right, modify if we don't, and then get on with it. Thank you.

[Interruption.] Don't worry, it was a certain Member who was seeking distraction from your timber statement, so I'm sure she'll be listening to the rest of the statement now. Carolyn Thomas, finally.

Just listening to the conversations, you reminded me I visited Denbighshire County Council’s nursery. They’ve started growing trees from seedlings themselves, and also wildflowers, which is amazing, to have that local stock ready for planting on the public estate.

I want to mention continuous cover forestry as opposed to clear felling. It’s so important for biodiversity and to also prevent flooding as well. We’ve seen that on our public estates managed by NRW, so would that be part of the strategy, going forward? I think that’s really important.

I’m really concerned about diseases such as ash dieback, and larch disease as well, so a variety of species is really important going forward.

So, my question to you, really, is: how would the Welsh Government ensure that Welsh forestry is climate resilient, and will this be kept under review, and will we see and learn more about climate change in Wales and adapt?

Thank you, Carolyn, for that question. It's good to hear about the work going on with the Denbighshire nurseries as well. We need lots of this work going on in all parts of Wales, and this consultation goes from the beginning of the nursery side, through the planting, the harvesting, the embedding, the construction, and the value added all the way through it. Just to make that clear: this isn't simply to do with planting of trees or one type of tree, this is the whole match here, because we see real potential in economic growth and jobs within this.

But you quite rightly mentioned the aspect of continuous cover and resilience, building resilience in. That's definitely part of the consultation and will need to be part of the strategy. So, the second priority discussed in the consultation addresses the need to increase resilience, promote diversity and to adapt our silvicultural systems, and we've got some specific proposals within the consultation that we want people to comment on, on how we futureproof our woodland and our forests. There are different types of silvicultural approaches to achieve different objectives over different timescales—it's not that there's one perfect one—so we need to make sure that we have that diversity in this, so that we can get the carbon sequestration, we can get the timber supplies coming on stream, but also have real diversity, real resilience, including species resilience, biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

We held a knowledge exchange event on 12 December last year. It was specifically focused on future productive species selection, timber properties, and, at that, we had the leading experts and a wide range of stakeholders to share best practice, but also the latest research—so, we had Forest Research, NRW, Bangor University were there, Woodknowledge Wales, Confor and other leading stakeholders. This, by the way, is part of a series of events we're running now of knowledge exchange events that we're going to be running, but it was fascinating to see this in the timber sector, talking about that resilience and diversity and future climate resilience as well.

Thank you to the Cabinet Secretary. I did get a bit worried during that statement on timber and forestry, because I could smell burning, but I've been reassured that it's a couple of toasted teacakes that have caught fire in the kitchen—[Laughter.]—and that all is resolved.