The Mineral Products Association is calling for reform of the mineral planning system to ensure future supply to support housing and infrastructure construction, manufacturing and other key strategic sectors of the British economy.
In a newly-published paper, the UK industry association highlights the essential role of mineral products and the fundamental importance of the planning system for ensuring supply as the economy recovers. Coming ahead of the Government’s anticipated Planning White Paper, the MPA is calling for specific, deliverable measures to reinforce the importance of mineral products and improve the delivery of the Government’s planning ambitions, supporting the recovery of construction and the broader economy.
The MPA says that surveys it has conducted over ten years show that land-won aggregates consumption outstrips the new reserves that are permitted, with 75% of crushed rock reserves and just 63% of sand and gravel reserves replaced between 2009 and 2018. The association adds that the planning system has a vital role to play in ensuring the right minerals are made available in the right place and at the right time to maintain the continuity of supply. It states that the reforms proposed in its new paper would substantially improve these processes.
In its Planning White Paper, the MPA reinforces the link between the delivery of housing, commercial development and infrastructure and the critical need for a steady and adequate supply of essential mineral products for construction and manufacturing.
The paper proposes a number of key reforms, both general to the whole system and specifically for mineral planning.
General reforms include better resourcing planning functions by ring-fencing fees to address the chronic under-resourcing of local planning departments.
The paper also highlights the need to improve slow plan-making and decision-making by streamlining the plan-making process, focusing on simpler plans supported by a template approach to general and development management policies that are common across the country.
Reforms that are specific to mineral planning include national statements of need for minerals and mineral products, including new national and sub-national guidelines for aggregates provision should provide a more consistent ‘forecast of future demand’ to support the development of local plans.
The MPA paper states there should also be continued monitoring at both national and local scales to support function and delivery of the Managed Aggregate Supply System.
It adds that major construction projects should be required to produce “resource assessments and material supply audits” as part of their development processes to provide greater visibility around future needs, and ensure the right materials are available in the right place and at the right time.
The paper also calls for the establishment of regional ‘centres of excellence’ for mineral planning delivery, pooling resources to deliver mineral planning services across authorities to address the lack of specialist minerals planning skills and experience within planning departments.
“Our analysis estimates over 3 billion tonnes of construction aggregates alone will be required by 2030, of which 70% will be primary materials that will need to be dug from the ground or dredged from the seabed,” said MPA chief executive Nigel Jackson.
“To maintain this essential contribution, supply cannot be assumed it has to be planned, monitored and managed. New capacity cannot be simply ‘switched on’, as it can take up to 15 years to bring new minerals sites and reserves into production following extensive investment and planning.”
Jackson added that the cumulative impacts of the ‘localist’ approach to mineral planning are a constraint on investment and confidence building by creating uncertainty. He said that long-term societal demands need to be supported by long-term policies and plans that provide confidence to planning authorities and mineral operators to ensure the most sustainable and cost-effective supply solutions can be delivered.
