VGI0004

Written evidence submitted by Mineral Products Association

About MPA

The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and industrial sand industries. With the merger of British Precast, and affiliation of the British Association of Reinforcement (BAR), the British Calcium Carbonate Federation, the Cement Admixtures Association (CAA), CONSTRUCT, Eurobitume, MPA Northern Ireland, MPA Scotland and the UK Quality Ash Association (UKQAA), it has a growing membership of 520 companies and is the sectoral voice for mineral products. MPA membership is made up of the vast majority of independent SME quarrying companies throughout the UK, as well as the 9 major international and global companies. It covers 100% of UK cement and lime production, 90% of GB aggregates production, 95% of asphalt and over 70% of ready-mixed concrete and precast concrete production. In 2021, the industry supplied £22 billion worth of materials and services to the Economy. It is also the largest supplier to the construction industry, which had annual output valued at £178 billion. Industry production represents the largest flow of materials in the UK economy and is also one of the largest manufacturing sectors.

Major infrastructure programmes across all sectors rely on mineral products, and are a major part of the demand for out sector. The supply chain is often rather taken for granted, with clients engaging only with tier-one contractors rather than the mineral planning system that is ultimately responsible for ensuring the right minerals are made available in the right place and at the right time. This is a missed opportunity in terms of generating maximum value for the environment and local economies, as well as allowing publicly funded projects to benefit from the most sustainable and cost-effective supply options. There are promising examples of public bodies maximising value through good engagement that should be rolled out more widely.

Low carbon materials: public sector leadership generating wider value

A strong positive example is Highways England’s adoption of Warm Mix Asphalt, prior to becoming National Highways. The asphalt sector developed a lower-temperature, lower energy and therefore lower carbon method of supplying asphalt to roads projects, but had faced resistance to using it, in particular from local authorities, who are major customers. Following an APPG report promoting the benefits of Warm Mix Asphalt, National Highways decided to make it the standard approach in 2022 for its maintenance and major projects programmes. Since then, we have seen reluctance among local highways authorities diminish as familiarity grows, leading to increased take up of the lower carbon option.

The tangible value for Highways England (as was) created by this policy decision is both the environmental benefit of saving 61,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and around £70m per year. [1] However there is substantial further value created by improving confidence in this more sustainable option, which has since spread to other major public sector customers, i.e. local authorities. We hope to see the lesson being learned from this when it comes to further lower carbon options, such as low carbon concretes now included under the new standard BS8500.

HS2 and Lower Thames Crossing: supply chain engagement

Major transport infrastructure projects buy enormous amounts of crushed rock, sand and gravel, cement, and ready mixed and precast concrete. Over the last ten years, the replenishment rate for sand & gravel (63%; i.e. for every 100 tonnes sold, permission is granted for only 63 further tonnes to be extracted in the future) and crushed rock (52%) has been unsustainably low, in part due to the Managed Aggregate Supply System (MASS) that supports and shapes mineral planning delivery and which is overseen and coordinated by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, not having the information to demonstrate future need.[2]

Over recent years we have seen massive projects take different approaches, demonstrating the value of early engagement. The negative example here is HS2, which did not engage material suppliers prior to the project starting or understand the role that the mineral planning system plays in ensuring the right minerals are available in the right place and at the right time. With a project this large, as a sector we faced a situation of having very little information about the material needed or the delivery timescales. This meant that Aggregates Working Parties, the fora in which the industry liaises with the mineral planning authorities to set expectations on future need, cannot plan effectively for the additional material needs being generated by this major project, making it much harder to justify planning permission for new quarries and associated infrastructure that would be needed. This also resulted in a major government project competing with the construction material needs of other construction activity – including housing delivery and potentially even the needs of other NSIP projects. HS2 recognised this later in the process and subsequently engaged with MPA and the AWPs.

Much more positively, the approach of consulting early has now spread across DfT’s portfolio of projects. The Lower Thames Crossing organisation learned from this approach and took a much more sophisticated approach, engaging local suppliers and being mindful of the need not to dominate the market and risk distorting it. It has also meant that projects in the same region have been better placed to avoid market distortion.

The same potential issues exist for the delivery of other major projects – with nuclear new-build projects potentially competing with the construction material needs arising from the port infrastructure development required to support the delivery of the floating offshore wind in the South West (Celtic Sea), and the domestic construction material demands arising from the use of concrete floating foundations. With c.250 foundations required over a 5-year period to deliver the initial 4.5GW of capacity, and each foundation requiring c.15,000t of sand, gravel and cement, the availability and supply of the c.4 million tonnes of raw materials required to support this activity must not be assumed. It needs to be planned, monitored and managed through the MASS.

Recommendations

There are two key ways to simply deliver greater economic and environmental value from major public projects working with the mineral products sector. Firstly, public authorities can play a key role in normalising low carbon products and providing a supportive market, for example Warm Mix Asphalt and now new low carbon concretes under BS8500, and more in the future. This should be a part of the Government’s strategy for low carbon products.

Secondly, a requirement for major projects to produce Material Resource and Supply Audits, at the same point as Waste Audits, which are already required, would help support the MASS by providing greater transparency around the scale and timing of a project’s construction materials needs. In turn, this would allow a more holistic approach in understanding and quantifying future demand, and ensure the mineral planning system can enable the delivery of the right minerals in the right place and at the right time.

March 2024

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