The government has gone out to consultation on strategy for the steel industry and has published a roadmap to increase the use of timber in house-building. The cement lobby is feeling very left out.
The Mineral Products Association (MPA), which represents producers of aggregates, cement and concrete, has responded to the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) steel strategy consultation by pointing out that UK cement producers face many of the same challenges as steel producers – including uncompetitively expensive energy costs and the threat of carbon leakage leading to deindustrialisation.
While the steel sector’s difficulties over decades have put it in a precarious position, the MPA highlights clear parallels with domestic cement production. It has written to business secretary Jonathan Reynolds to make the case for UK cement to have similar consideration.
MPA director Diana Casey said: “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, decarbonised 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.”
The MPA has also slammed the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), describing its recently updated Timber in Construction Roadmap as “disproportionately partisan towards building with wood, despite reiterating its intractable shortcomings”.
The MPA says it ‘rests on over-optimistic assumptions about timber’s sustainability credentials’. But the MPA says that it was happy to see the document’s recognitions of 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 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 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 to concrete’s extensive environmental product declarations.”
The MPA is also taking a stand ahead of the forthcoming version of the industrial strategy, expected to be published by the 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 overlooked the fact that all of them require minerals and mineral products.
The MPA argues that UK minerals and mineral products need 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 decarbonise, certainly compared to 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 realise.
“Not for the first time, the government appears to be overlooking an essential £22bn 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 decarbonise 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.”
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
#Cement #lobby #feeling #unloved #government