The Covid crisis, Brexit hurdles and surging construction activity have combined to create a ‘huge’ timber shortage across the country.      According to a poll by UK's Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) published in August, respondents expect construction material costs, including wood, to rise by about 10 per cent over the next year. Meanwhile builders' merchant Travis Perkins revealed that it had seen inflation in its input costs jump from 2 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 to 5 per cent in the second and that plasterboard and ...