The European Confederation of Woodworking Industries (CEI-Bois) today welcomed the publication of the EU Housing Package, emphasising the critical role that timber and wood-based construction can play in addressing Europe's housing affordability crisis while supporting sustainable economic growth. The construction sector remains a key driver of employment, regional development, and overall economic activity across Europe, and the use of sustainable materials like wood enhances both productivity and climate resilience.
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CEI-Bois noted that timber solutions are commercially available and environmentally sustainable, offering faster building times, lower costs, and improved predictability compared to conventional construction methods. Industrialised and off-site timber construction can accelerate housing delivery, maintain high quality, and achieve strong energy performance. According to CEI-Bois, scaling up housing supply in Europe requires improving productivity across the construction ecosystem, while ensuring affordability and sustainability align with the EU's climate neutrality goals for 2050.
The organisation highlighted that the European Affordable Housing Plan, the European Strategy for Housing Construction, and the expansion of the New European Bauhaus could advance these priorities by recognising the growing need for new sustainable construction, maintaining momentum on the renovation wave, and promoting the benefits of industrialised, circular, bio-based construction. CEI-Bois stressed, however, that several financial, regulatory, and standardisation challenges must still be addressed to realise the full potential of the Housing Package.
Key areas for action include enabling access to diverse revenue streams such as carbon storage credits, improving access to capital and insurance, ensuring stable demand through strategic public procurement, simplifying regulations and permitting, harmonising national building codes, accelerating updates to construction product standards, and aligning methodologies for assessing environmental sustainability with EU policies. CEI-Bois also emphasised the importance of implementing second-generation Eurocodes and advancing bio-based standards in line with the European Commission's 2025 priorities.
CEI-Bois reaffirmed its commitment to working closely with EU and national authorities to implement the Housing Package swiftly, aiming to deliver affordable housing more quickly while strengthening sustainable construction, economic growth, and regional development across Europe.
More information:
CEI-Bois
[email protected]
www.cei-bois.org
