In the August issue of The Fabricator, the editor John Roper wrote a balanced resume on a recent meeting I organised with "a cross section of people in the industry" to discuss how best to promote and defend PVC-U. Naturally I'm very passionate about the material but more importantly increasingly concerned about the threats from timber, and potentially other materials too.

In the last few years, environmentalists and timber lobbyists have positioned timber as the most sustainable and durable solution for domestic properties, while misinforming specifiers and consumers about PVC-U. Campaigns such as Wood for Good and The Wood Window Alliance have been very successful in raising timber's profile while less professionally, making derogatory comparisons with PVC-U. To counter this misinformation I set up Fighting Back With Facts and put together a fact sheet PVC-U installers can download from the website and use in their sales pitch to reassure homeowners that PVC-U is a sustainable and durable product, and more importantly, does not rot or require maintenance.

We are facing a generation of homeowners that won't remember or will have not experienced the significant problems that came with timber windows, and the headache of having to regularly paint and maintain them. This generation of people believe what the timber lobbyists and campaigners say and it influences their perception of PVC-U. It's already happening with housebuilders. I have come across several recent developments where timber has been specified because they believe home buyers will be attracted and see it as more eco-friendly. But it's not. Timber windows cannot be effectively recycled. PVC-U can - up to 10 times in fact! Many tell me that PVC-U is already starting to lose out, and this will accelerate if the industry doesn't "fight back".

The BPF and other established bodies see the need to lobby Government, architects and specifiers on the benefits of PVC-U - which is great and it's important we do this. But budgets are limited and this leaves little in the pot for consumer campaigns.

In the meeting, which included the trade media, systems companies, fabricators and a hardware manufacturer, there were mixed views. Some do not see the threat of timber as a real one - PVC-U still makes up 80% of the market. They feel existing bodies do a good job promoting the material, although they should do better, and that the budget should remain focused on targeting government and specifiers. Currently PVC-U has the lion share of the domestic market because that's what most installers still sell. But if demand for timber increases, more and more installers will sell it.

Others closer to the front line (perhaps the majorioty of fabricators and installers who are immediately affected by the public's and consumer media's perception of PVC-U), feel that more should be done to protect the industry and counter misinformation. I believe the industry needs an organisation to communicate directly with consumers to promote PVC-U and its outstanding benefits and counter the attacks from timber.

If you would like to support this idea, call me on 01462 489900 or go to http://www.fightingbackwithfacts.com.