Planning White Paper Stings Minerals Industry with Increased
Costs
The QPA, the principal trade association for the sector, has
raised serious concerns about the current Planning White Paper
on the grounds that it will burden quarry operators with substantially
increased costs when making new planning applications or appeals.
The White Paper, released at the end of May, sets out proposals
that could see costs for planning applications rise by at least
40% and, in the case of larger sites, by well over 100% if plans
to remove the current £50k cap go ahead. It also opens the
door for individual mineral planning authorities to levy their
own charges rather than basing fees on a national tariff. Even
a small variation to an existing permission could cost an operator
in excess of £100k according to the White Paper.
Alongside initial application cost hikes, planning appeals could
also be subject to unwelcome fees, increasing the cost of securing
permissions still further. At a time when replenishment rates
on aggregate sites are already running at about half of what is
needed to maintain long term supply, these increased costs are
counter productive.
A further blow has been dealt by the Chancellor, who has restated
his intention to introduce the planning gain supplement (PGS),
creating a situation where new sites and extensions suffer potentially
massive initial or additional costs. This would have a particularly
acute effect in some areas of the country when competing with
existing sites that hold longer-term reserves.
Simon van der Byl of QPA said: "Recent reforms have failed
to improve the operation of the planning system and this does
not create a happy situation for minerals operators. Quarriers
are set to suffer from the barrage of new and increasing fees
that appear to be arriving from all corners of Government, and
this is further compounded by the proposed PGS. With the Minerals
Policy Statement underlining the importance of our managed aggregate
supply system, it beggars belief that the Government is proposing
to make aggregate suppliers' lives even more difficult with these
unjustifiably high charges."
ENDS
For more information please contact Tim Parry by tel: 0207 9638000
or e-mail parry@qpa.org, www.qpa.org
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