Methodology & glossary

How the
numbers work

How to read the Forest Research Timber Price Indices: basis, units, the index base and the licence. Understanding these avoids comparing prices that are not comparable.

Standing vs roadside

A standing price is for timber sold uncut, on the stump — the buyer pays to fell and extract it. A roadside (or delivered) price is for logs already felled and brought to the forest road, so it includes those harvesting costs. Coniferous standing sales are a standing price; softwood sawlogs and small roundwood are roadside prices. The two bases are not interchangeable and must never be compared or converted without documented harvesting-cost assumptions.

Index vs price

The Coniferous Standing Sales Price Index is set to Sep 2021 = 100. An index of 89.0 means prices are 89.0% of the September 2021 level — it is not a price in £/m³. The matching price is about £35.17 per m³. Index and price are different things.

Overbark, no VAT, no haulage

All prices are overbark (measured including the bark) and exclude VAT and haulage. They are gate/roadside values, not the delivered-to-your-yard price a private buyer would pay.

Great Britain only

The indices cover Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales — and are built from public-forest sales by Forestry England, Forestry and Land Scotland and Natural Resources Wales. They exclude Northern Ireland, exclude hardwoods, and are not broken down by nation or region. There is no official timber price for a single nation or county.

Not the ONS sawmill index

The ONS Producer Price Index for sawn and planed wood (series EVUD, 186.7 at 2015=100 in May 2026) is a UK sawmill output price index — a manufacturing PPI for processed timber, not a forest-gate price for standing or roadside logs. It measures a different thing and should not be read as a timber price.

Licence

Contains information from Forest Research (Crown Copyright © Forest Research 2026), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. See the Timber Price Indices and Forestry Statistics 2025. Licence terms: Open Government Licence v3.0.

Note. Timber prices are the Forest Research Timber Price Indices for Great Britain, from real sales of timber from the public forests. Standing prices (timber sold uncut, on the stump) and roadside prices (felled logs at the forest road) are not comparable. All figures are overbark and exclude VAT and haulage. The indices cover Great Britain only — no Northern Ireland, no hardwoods, and no breakdown by nation or region. For information only.