MPA calls out glaring gap between Government strategies
Government criticised for inconsistent plans while overlooking aggregates, cement, and concrete
THE Government has been criticised for publishing inconsistent plans on the future of some construction materials while overlooking the aggregates, cement, and concrete needed to build sustainable homes and infrastructure.
The Mineral Products Association (MPA) says the Department for Business & Trade’s Steel Strategy – currently out for consultation – mirrors many of the issues facing UK cement producers, unlike Defra’s recently updated Timber in Construction Roadmap, which is disproportionately partisan towards building with wood, despite reiterating its intractable shortcomings. This follows the Green Paper for the forthcoming Industrial Strategy which highlighted eight key sectors but overlooked the fact that all of them require minerals and mineral products, especially advanced manufacturing and clean energy.
Responding to the Steel Strategy, the MPA says the UK cement industry faces many of the same issues that have beset UK steel producers, such as uncompetitively expensive energy costs and the threat of carbon leakage leading to deindustrialization. While the steel sector’s difficulties over decades have put it in a precarious position, the MPA highlights clear parallels with domestic cement production, and has written to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds MP to make the case for UK cement to have similar consideration before it is too late.
Dr Diana Casey, MPA executive director for energy and climate change, said the Government’s plan for steel made worryingly familiar reading from a cement perspective, where similar existential threats are faced: ‘Cement was recently identified as the UK’s most vulnerable sector to carbon leakage, which effectively shifts emissions to countries with weaker climate policies.
‘We’re not in the same position as steel, yet, but we’re on the same trajectory, with the same uncompetitive industrial energy costs. The Government should be aiming to reach 2050 with a stronger, decarbonized industrial base taking advantage of our natural strengths, such as engineering expertise, mineral resources, and carbon storage capacity. But, instead, they risk killing off another foundation sector as other countries support their own industries to a greater degree than we do here.’
Turning its attention to building with wood, the MPA has reiterated its fundamental objections to the revised Timber in Construction Roadmap, which rests on over-optimistic assumptions about timber’s sustainability credentials. But MPA leaders have at least welcomed the document’s recognition of many of the key reasons why timber construction is not taking off in the UK, such as its inherent combustibility, vulnerability to moisture, inadequate environmental data, and scepticism from insurers about its durability.
Chris Leese, chair of the MPA’s executive management committee, said: ‘Given that the timber roadmap plainly states that timber is combustible and can contribute to the spread of fire, it’s frustrating and perplexing that the Government seems so keen to support using more of it. Even more so with unresolved questions around how to prevent further global deforestation, when the UK is already the third largest timber importer in the world, and how to tackle the problems of water damage and durability that have deterred insurers. And that’s before we get into things like the monoculture within managed forests or the cocktail of chemicals needed to try to overcome timber’s deficiencies. However, we welcome the report’s recognition of the limited environmental data the timber sector provides compared with concrete’s extensive Environmental Product Declarations.’
Finally, the MPA has taken a stand ahead of the forthcoming version of the Industrial Strategy expected to be published by HM Treasury and DBT with the Comprehensive Spending Review. The Industrial Strategy Green Paper outlined selected key growth sectors to support including advanced manufacturing and clean energy. But the MPA responded calling for UK minerals and mineral products to be included as an essential foundation sector because of the UK economy’s reliance on domestically sourced minerals both for construction and manufacturing.
Robert McIlveen, MPA senior director for communications and public affairs, said: ‘The Industrial Strategy picked strategic sectors with high growth potential, and the UK mineral products sector has a key role to play in those sectors. But that seems at odds with the lack of government support for UK cement producers as they continue to decarbonize, certainly compared with steel, whilst support is offered by the Government for timber in construction when the UK is already a huge net importer, and any growth would take decades to realize.
‘Not for the first time, the Government appears to be overlooking an essential £22 billion turnover domestic industry that supports 80,000 regional jobs and is foundational to the whole of the UK economy. All parts of the mineral products sector are working hard to decarbonize while supporting delivery of the Government’s hugely ambitious targets on housing and infrastructure. All we are asking is recognition of the industry’s role and a level playing field with other countries and industry sectors.’
