Returning to the NCC Birmingham on 07 October, the Structural Timber Conference 2026 will bring the industry together again to examine the ideas, challenges and practical solutions shaping timber construction right now.
After a successful event last year, the Structural Timber Conference returns with a clear focus on the issues now shaping the sector – circularity, sustainability, practical delivery and the commercial realities of building with timber at scale. Taking place on 07 October 2026 at the National Conference Centre (NCC) and co located with the Structural Timber Awards, the event arrives at a time when timber is under growing pressure to prove not just its environmental credentials, but its ability to support efficient, confident and repeatable delivery across the built environment. That gives this year’s programme particular weight. The agenda will explore the benefits of timber construction, look at future opportunities for the sector and examine the challenges, solutions and success stories helping to move the industry forward. Circularity and sustainability sit at the heart of that conversation, but so too does the wider question of what matters most for structural timber right now.
A timely moment for timber
That makes the conference more than just another date in the calendar. It offers an opportunity to step back from the pace of live projects and take stock of where timber is heading in the UK – and what still needs to happen if the material is to expand its place in mainstream construction. For a sector that continues to balance innovation with regulation, environmental ambition with cost pressures and technical progress with market confidence, which feels especially timely. A broad cross-section of the industry is expected to attend, including architects, engineers, clients, contractors, local authorities, housebuilders and developers. That breadth remains one of the event’s biggest strengths. Timber does not move forward through one part of the supply chain acting alone. Progress depends on closer alignment between specifiers, manufacturers, contractors, policymakers and end clients, and one of the day’s real values lies in bringing those different perspectives together in the same room.
A programme grounded in real projects
That sense of substance is already visible in the programme. Paul King of Built by Nature will open with a keynote on why timber must move from niche to mainstream, before Kirsten Haggart of Waugh Thistleton turns to the next generation of commercial timber buildings. From there, the agenda moves through project-led sessions from Becca Troy of Webb Yates and Tonkin Liu, Adrian Campbell of ChangeBuilding and Charlie Butterwick of Architecture Unknown, before widening into education, infrastructure and housing. Contributions from Paul Inch of OSKOP and Strata Consulting, Hannah Dixon and Sam Bailey, and Rob Wheaton underline an agenda shaped around real projects, practical lessons and the wider question of how timber can be delivered with greater confidence and consistency.
There is also a strong practical thread running through the day. For delegates, that means more than a run of presentations. It means direct access to the people, projects and ideas shaping timber construction now, with sessions designed to inform live decisions around specification, procurement, design development, manufacturing strategy and site delivery. In that sense, the value lies not only in the variety of discussion, but in how closely it connects to the realities of project work.
Where timber goes next
That wider relevance feels especially important at a time when timber is being discussed not simply as a material choice, but as part of a broader rethink around carbon, productivity, material efficiency, manufacture and design. With sessions spanning commercial, education, infrastructure and housing, the agenda reflects a market moving beyond advocacy and into questions of application, repeatability and scale. That gives the event weight not only for those already immersed in structural timber, but for anyone working in MMC, industrialised delivery or lowcarbon building strategy. There is, of course, a networking element to the day, but the value of that goes beyond simple visibility. In a market where early confidence, informed clients and shared understanding often shape outcomes as much as technical capability, face-to-face discussion still matters. Bringing clients, designers, manufacturers and contractors together does not solve every challenge, but it gives the right conversations a far better chance of leading somewhere practical.
Set against a market asking bigger questions about carbon, efficiency and delivery, Structural Timber Conference 2026 arrives at the right moment. For anyone serious about where timber goes next in the UK, Birmingham on 07 October 2026 should prove a worthwhile place to be.
