Labour candidate sees jobs benefit of forestry and wood in East Lothian

Pat Glennon, joint Managing Director of Glennon Brothers, which employs more than 900 people in the UK and Ireland (including 76 at Windymains, near Humbie), described the company’s work as “a green circle”.

He told Mr Alexander: “Trees are grown and harvested in Scotland, and processed in sawmills like ours to make timber frames, fencing and other products for homes and businesses in Scotland. And then we plant more trees to replace those we cut down - it’s a perfect green circle.”

Mr Glennon added: “To successfully tackle climate change, the best sequestration machine is fast-growing conifers - not wall-to-wall Sitka spruce, but we must plant a strong conifer crop to provide the timber that we need to make the wood products everyone wants.”

Alba has the capacity to provide around 25 million young trees for the forestry industry each year, almost a quarter of the entire UK supply.

Stuart Goodall, Chief Executive of Confor, who accompanied Mr Alexander on the visit said: “I was delighted to see that Douglas Alexander recognises the positive economic and jobs contribution that the forestry industry provides, especially in rural areas - totalling £1 billion annually in Scotland and providing well over 25,000 jobs.

“The opportunities to use more home-grown wood in the house-building industry is significant and fits in with Labour’s ‘securonomics’ agenda - which is based on more economic activity in the UK serviced by home-grown supply. This supports the ‘green circle’ supply chain that Pat Glennon talked about and fits in well with Keir Starmer’s stated desire to build 1.5 million new homes in the first term of a Labour Government. To do that in a sustainable way means using more home-grown wood.”