The Welsh Labour government that launched the UK-leading Timber Industrial Strategy in 2025 mentions timber just once in its 2026 re-election manifesto, with the nationalist opposition party Plaid Cymru the only party in either devolved election to anchor the strategy’s delivery to a named institution. That is according to a Forestry Journal review by Deputy Editor Jack Haugh of party manifestos ahead of Thursday’s 7 May vote for the devolved Scottish and Welsh parliaments.
Welsh Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan’s manifesto pledges only to “support a sustainable timber industry,” with no further reference to home-grown procurement, processing or supply chain development. The strategy itself, launched by the same Welsh Labour government in 2025, is the Forestry Journal’s UK-leading benchmark for national-level signalling on home-grown timber in housing and construction.
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth’s manifesto argues that Wales has “yet to fully realise the potential of its timber as a sustainable resource,” and commits to public procurement of Welsh timber and to delivering the Industrial Strategy through a proposed Welsh National Development Agency. The Plaid Cymru manifesto also commits to the creation of mixed and native woodland, while pledging to avoid large-scale corporate plantations created solely for carbon offsetting.
The Welsh Conservatives and Reform UK Wales have both committed to abolishing Natural Resources Wales, the country’s environmental regulator, with Reform pledging to separate forestry into a distinct regulatory group and Conservative leader Darren Millar’s platform promising to replace it with “an independent, fit-for-purpose regulator.” Neither manifesto mentions timber directly, with the Welsh Liberal Democrats limited to a brief pledge of “adequate support for woodland planting” under a wider nature recovery commitment.
Across the border in Scotland, the governing Scottish National Party (SNP) carries the most ambitious woodland creation target of any platform in either election, with First Minister John Swinney’s manifesto setting an 18,000-hectare-per-year ceiling by 2029 and committing at least 40 per cent of annual planting to native woodland by 2045. Delivery sits well short of the new target, with the Swinney government overseeing the creation of 8,470 hectares of new woodland over the past year, less than half the manifesto pledge.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s manifesto offers the most explicit timber-construction link of any platform across both elections, pledging to lift home-grown timber use through offsite housing construction and higher-value processing. The Scottish Greens commit to 9,000 hectares of new woodland a year, with the majority of forestry grants ring-fenced for native species.
Alex Cole-Hamilton’s Scottish Liberal Democrats pledge at least 50 per cent native trees alongside collaboration with architects and the construction industry on home-grown timber, with the platform also committing to ban the sale of rhododendron ponticum. Forestry, trees and woodland creation do not appear anywhere in Russell Findlay’s Scottish Conservative manifesto, with the platform instead promising a £50 million boost to the rural affairs portfolio and a focus on farming.
It comes as Wood Central reported Brussels missed its 30 April EUDR deadline before delivering the simplification package on Monday 4 May, with UK timber-policy reform now running alongside Brussels’s settled EUDR trajectory.
With 18,000 hectares targeted by the SNP, 9,000 hectares pledged by the Scottish Greens and timber mentioned just once across Welsh Labour’s manifesto, Rhun ap Iorwerth’s proposed Welsh National Development Agency stands as the only named delivery vehicle for the UK-leading Welsh Timber Industrial Strategy ahead of Thursday’s 7 May vote.
