STAFF from Hexham’s Egger factory travelled to Westminster earlier this month to champion the contribution of one of the UK’s largest manufacturing industries.

They attended an event hosted by the Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF) to mark the reconstitution of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Wood Panel Industry and the launch of an expert working group for the sector.

Jordan Pegg and Connie Moore, apprentices at Egger’s Hexham site, which employs 600 people, met with politicians, including Hexham’s MP Guy Opperman and Stirling MP Stephen Kerr.

Mr Kerr is the newly-appointed chair of the APPG and the working group.

The working group will assess the challenges facing the sector due to lack of security of domestic wood supply, how the industry can meet 100 per cent of UK demand for wood panel products post-Brexit, and how it can coexist with the wood processing and wood fuels sectors which also rely on a finite wood source.

The wood panel manufacturing sector currently uses 25 per cent of the 11 million tons of wood delivered from UK forestry every year, with WPIF members suppling approximately 65 per cent of the total UK annual consumption of wood-based panels.

Bob Livesey, commercial director at Egger Western European Division, said: “As an industry, with ever growing demand from Government financially- supported energy facilities, we are increasingly finding it difficult to source local domestic wood fibre, including forest roundwood, industrial by-products and recycled wood, at commercial levels.

“Over the coming months, Egger will be supporting the working group to develop proposals to rebalance this disadvantage, to support the whole supply sector, through all industries, including construction, furniture manufacturing, shop-fitting, leisure industries and many more that use significant quantities of our materials on a daily basis, contributing significantly to the UK economy.”