Structural timber’s role in accelerating UK housebuilding was pushed at a Palace of Westminster panel chaired by Matt Turmaine MP and Baroness Ritchie, with senior figures from the Structural Timber Association, Egger UK, Lowfield Timber Frames and Places for People addressing major housebuilders and social housing providers. STA CEO Andrew Orriss noted that seven of the UK’s top 15 housebuilders plan to manufacture in timber frame, aligning with DEFRA’s Timber in Construction Roadmap and Net Zero 2050 targets. Timber’s lower embodied carbon and carbon sequestration were positioned as key advantages over traditional materials.

Northern Ireland manufacturer Screencore has appointed RME Solutions as exclusive distributor for its full range of mobile screens and crushers, plus spare parts, across France. RME, led by managing director Benoît Roglet, will provide nationwide after-sales coverage, including service, maintenance and customer support for quarrying, recycling platforms, demolition sites and public works. The Screencore line will be integrated with RME’s existing sorting, grinding, sieving and cleaning equipment portfolio, giving French operators a single supplier for complete materials preparation circuits.

Heidelberg has launched a new range of high-thermal-conductivity, low-resistivity backfill and bedding materials specifically engineered for high and ultra-high voltage underground power cables. The products are formulated to improve heat dissipation from cable systems, reducing localised temperature rise and associated ampacity constraints compared with conventional granular or cementitious surrounds. For civil and geotechnical designers, this allows tighter cable spacing, potentially shallower trench sections, and more reliable performance in dense urban corridors where thermal bottlenecks often limit circuit capacity.