HC Deb 13 April 1994 vol 241 cc175-6W
Mr. Rowe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he intends to publish minerals planning guidance note 6 on planning guidance for aggregates; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Curry

We are today publishing the revised mineral planning guidance note 6 on aggregates—MPG6—for England.

To help achieve a more sustainable approach, we are reducing the landbank—the amount of land-won material, that is, sand and gravel, with planning consent at any one time—from 10 to seven years.

An assured supply of aggregates for construction is a basic requirement of a healthy economy. But sustainable development means that we must reduce our very high dependence on primary aggregates and make more use of substitutes such as secondary and recycled material. We need to seek better patterns of supply and use of resources, and more environmentally acceptable ways of working mineral sites and restoring these sites once work has ceased.

As a first step in achieving this, industry is being asked to reduce its dependence on land won aggregates from 83 to 68 per cent. by 2006. Provision of sand and gravel in the south-east will be 10 per cent. less than that envisaged for the same 15-year period in the current MPG6 guidelines, published in 1989. Industry is asked to increase its use of secondary and recycled materials by 100 per cent. To make clear that the Government are looking for early progress towards sustainable development, these guidelines will run to 2006 and not 2011 as assumed in the draft guidelines issued in January 1993.

We are inviting industry to come forward with proposals on how these targets can be achieved and developed.

We propose to establish, on a trial basis, a help line to provide practical advice to the industry on specifications and ways to increase the use of recycled and secondary materials in particular projects.

As the construction and repair of roads consumes some 30 per cent. of all aggregates, my Department intends to conduct research, jointly with the Department of Transport, into how to increase the use of recycled and secondary materials in the construction and repair of roads.

We will also be commissioning further research to enable monitoring and measurement of the progress towards the target set in MPG6.

A copy of MPG6 has been placed in the House Library.