Two things in the past fortnight bear directly on buying a garden room: a government-backed way to pay in stages rather than up front, and new timber figures that explain why quotes are not getting any cheaper. July’s official building figures round it off.
Staged payments and an Approved Code for home improvement firms
On 28 August the government announced an Approved Code for home improvement businesses and a Trusted Payments app that holds a customer’s money and releases it as agreed stages of a project are completed. “These changes mean you’ll now have the option to make sure your money is held safely and released bit by bit as the work gets done,” said the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham.
The government’s figures: more than one in four UK adults who had home improvement work done in the past 18 months had problems, 37% of those faced extra costs averaging £750, and people lost over £10.3 billion on home and garden maintenance in 2024. The release said the app would go live the following week, with the code fully live by December 2026.
Why it matters to you: many garden room firms take a deposit before the building is manufactured, and a firm that fails before delivery can take that money with it. Milestone payments shift the risk: you pay for the base, then the shell, then the fit-out. Both schemes are voluntary, so ask a supplier whether it will use the app or agree a staged schedule. If you do pay a deposit, paying at least part of it by credit card gives you Section 75 protection on purchases between £100 and £30,000.
Source: GOV.UK, 28 August 2026.
Timber imports stay weak and softwood prices stay above last year
Timber Development UK’s latest statistics, reported by the trade press on 7 and 8 September, show the combined volume of the UK’s main timber and panel product imports was 3.9% lower in the first half of 2026 than a year earlier. Softwood, more than 60% of all timber and panel imports, fell 4.9% to 2.898 million m³. Softwood prices rose in the first quarter and fell back in the second while remaining above year-earlier levels.
“The first half of 2026 presents a mixed picture for UK timber imports, but the headline position is that overall volumes remain weak and below the levels seen in previous years,” said Nick Boulton, head of technical and trade policy at Timber Development UK.
Why it matters to you: softwood frames, cladding and decking make up much of what goes into a timber garden room. With prices still above last year’s, there is no timber-driven reason to expect quotes to fall this autumn, so compare like-for-like specifications rather than waiting for prices to drop.
Sources: Builders’ Merchants News, 8 September 2026 and Builders Merchants Journal, 7 September 2026.
July’s building figures: home improvement work up 1.7% in the month
The ONS construction output bulletin, published on 11 September, estimates that private housing repair and maintenance grew 1.7% in July, the biggest contribution to a 0.8% rise in all repair and maintenance work. Over the three months to July, though, private housing repair and maintenance fell 1.7%, the main reason total construction output slipped 0.5%.
Why it matters to you: the ONS does not count garden rooms separately, but private repair and improvement work is the category they fall into. A soft three months followed by a better July suggests installers are busy without being overwhelmed, a reasonable moment to ask for lead times in writing before you sign.
Source: ONS, Construction output in Great Britain: July 2026.