Sustainability Fund likely to fund projects across the UK

Giving more details of the plans for the levy in its Rural White Paper, the DETR confirmed that revenues raised would be given back to business partly via the Sustainability Fund. Spending will be “aimed at delivering local environmental benefits to areas subject to the environmental costs of aggregates extraction”.

The paper says: “We need mineral extraction to provide for the needs of society and the economy. But we need to take account of the environmental costs of aggregates extraction when deciding how much society needs. And when there is extraction, modern techniques for working and restoring sites should be used to protect the soil and return the land to an agricultural or alternative use such as nature conservation, woodland or amenity.”

1.60 per tonne

From 2002 a levy of 1.60 per tonne will be placed on sales of primary aggregate. This measure, announced in the last budget, aims to ensure that the quarrying of aggregates (which go into concrete and other materials used for road building and maintenance and for the construction of buildings) carries a price tag that will encourage the use of alternative products made from recycled construction materials or from wastes.

The Quarry Products Association, which represents most quarry operators in the UK, still has major concerns with the aggregates tax.
It says that the tax “still lacks clear environmental objectives and therefore a clear way of measuring its effectiveness. Furthermore, it is still being presented as a fait accompli and this is clearly at odds with the Prime Minister's declared aim of seeking environmental solutions through partnerships with industry. We are making this point most forcefully, as well as emphasising the differences in approach between the handling of the aggregates tax question and that of pesticides and the Climate Change Levy.”
Links: Quarry Products Association
DETR