Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the compound annual growth rate of UK commercial timber prices in the last two decades.

Timber price indices published by Forest Research, based on timber sales made by Forestry England, Natural Resources Wales and Forestry and Land Scotland, show that coniferous standing timber has increased in value by 235% in nominal terms and 113% in real terms over the last 20 years. Timber is an internationally traded commodity and prices vary depending on the performance of economies around the world, currency exchange rates and levels of harvesting.