QPA calls for fundamental review of aggregates levy

THE Quarry Products Association has called for a fundamental review of the aggregates levy throughout the rest of the UK following last month’s pre-Budget report announcement confirming the Government’s U-turn on the levy in Northern Ireland.

In his report, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, indicated that the Government intends to extend both the scope and length of the current relief for aggregates in Northern Ireland, provided that firms wishing to benefit from the relief agree to implement environmental improvements to their operations.

The relief currently applied to aggregates in processed products is to continue and will be extended to cover virgin aggregates, coming into effect later this year and fixed at the current level of 80% of the full rate until 2012.

Commenting on the news, Simon van der Byl, director general of the QPA, said: ‘We very much welcome this acknowledgement that the tax has failed in Northern Ireland and that the Government is looking at a scheme to reduce the rate of taxation there.

‘However, we are concerned that there are still major problems with the levy in the rest of the UK. It has self-evidently failed the Government's own tests of good environmental taxation both in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. These points have been made in a QPA assessment recently submitted to the Government and we are now calling for a comprehensive review of the levy throughout the UK.’