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Whether as a producer or as an associate, membership of MPA gives you a finger on the pulse of this great industry and an opportunity to influence its direction.
In an age when legislation is constantly changing, it is increasingly difficult for operators to stay in touch with what is often essential information. The opportunity to influence outcomes is equally precious and is not usually available if you do not have the combined strength of a good trade association and its lobbying capacity. Given the sheer breadth of its membership, MPA is an influential voice for its members and is highly respected by government at all levels.
MPA is also about expertise, with a team of experienced professionals constantly on call to our members. Many of our members regard the association as a cost-effective extension to their own teams - specialists who enable them to stay ahead of the game on important policy and legislative issues and represent them in dealings with government at all levels.
Membership also provides a host of valuable networking opportunities at both national and regional levels, not least opportunities to compare notes with people whose businesses face similar challenges. Together, you are a much stronger force than individually.
• Influence MPA policy at the highest level by playing a part in the MPA’s committee structure. Feed your views into strategies that have successfully lobbied UK Government, regional assemblies and the EU.
• Participate in the MPA’s regional structure in England or through MPA Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Tackle the challenges to your business at a local level with the strength of the association behind you.
• Benefit from MPA participation in key industry bodies such as Regional Aggregate Working Parties, National Coordinating Group, QNJAC, Proskills, MPQC, CBI, UK Minerals Forum, CPA and many more.
• Feed data into the association’s ground-breaking sustainable development strategy, so ensuring you are represented within the industry’s most vital communications tool with our regulators.
• Access to expert advice, guidance and support from the MPA officers. Members have immediate access to the support of MPA staff working on their behalf to protect their business interests.
• Draw upon the wide-ranging expertise on diverse issues including environmental, waste, water, mineral planning, health, safety, corporate social responsibility, responsible sourcing and many more.
• Receive regular briefing notes to explain the impact of any new Government policy decisions or other regulatory issues within hours of announcements.
• Benefit from a recognised connection and influence in Europe via our various European trade associations, with their own expertise on EU regulation.
• Safeguard your restoration in the unlikely event of insolvency though the MPA’s £1m Restoration Guarantee Fund which can be made available to help complete agreed work.
• Ensure your views are fed into the heart of the Government’s regulatory process through the MPA’s dialogue with senior public sector decision-makers and attendance at key stakeholder committees.
• Have latest news delivered straight to your inbox with our monthly newsletter, featuring up-to-the-minute advice and views on issues that affect your business.
• Access the MPA members’website featuring the latest technical advice, downloadable resources, searchable industry site database, policy guidance and news.
• Receive free updates on UK industry production and market trends through our statistics service.
• Full access to an extensive library of regularly updated guidance literature. Take advantage of our stakeholder literature or the latest technical advice on planning, products, the environment and much more.
• Participate in our prestigious MPA Showcase - by having your work being featured in the show or by taking key contacts along on the day to show them what you and your industry are achieving.
• Raise your company’s profile through participation in the MPA’s health and safety, biodiversity and restoration award schemes.
• Attend annual seminars offering the latest advice on technical issues. Our events on mineral planning and asphalt issues are recognised as vital amongst the membership.
• Find out first about MPA events and seminars, all offering networking opportunities that bring suppliers and buyers together.
• Draw upon our centralised range of best practice advice that MPA collects from across its UK membership.
• Take part in specialist briefings offering advice and guidance on new regulations such as the social dialogue agreement on respirable crystalline silica.
• Sharing best practice is an important means of improving safety performance and reducing workplace accidents. Take advantage of our extensive library of case studies.
• Sign up to Safer by Association, our new and cost effective way to evaluate risks and improve health and safety on site.
• Boost your corporate social responsibility effort with our support materials designed to encourage better community links with wellknown initiatives such as Play Safe… Stay Safe and Make the Link.
MPA operates from offices in central London and Camberley in Surrey, with regional offices in Glasgow and Belfast and dedicated officers working across Wales. The industry experience in our team is vast, a pool of expertise from which members can greatly strengthen their own activities. Our structure has been designed to ensure that the organisation is responsive to its members’ needs and that they have every opportunity to influence its policies.
One of MPA’s great strengths lies in our regional structure, which is based on the UK economic planning regions, so ensuring close alignment of members’ interests. Regional chairmen feed local views and recommendations to MPA Council. The regions also provide many opportunities for members of all sizes to network with their peers.
Membership of MPA provides an opportunity to use prestige office and meeting facilities in central London and near Camberley in Surrey at modest or even no cost. We can also arrange catering, video conferencing and hot-desking as required.
MPA includes a number of constituent organisations that represent the interests of specific mineral products. Operating together under the MPA umbrella provides combined strength while facilitating cost-effective use of resources and expertise:
Agricultural Lime Association
www.aglime.org.uk
British Lime Association
www.britishlime.org
British Marine Aggregate Producers Association
www.bmapa.org
British Ready-Mixed Concrete Association
www.brmca.org.uk
Mortar Industry Association
www.mortar.org.uk
MPA Asphalt
www.mineralproducts.org
www.asphaltindustryalliance.com
MPA Cement
http://cement.mineralproducts.org
MPA The Concrete Centre
www.concretecentre.com
Silica & Moulding Sands Association
www.samsa.org.uk
At the end of its first year, MPA counted no fewer than 160 achievements on behalf of its members. Here are just a few of the headlines with substantial value to members:
• MPA members beat their five-year “hard target” by achieving a 57 per cent reduction in reportable injuries.
• MPA protected tens of millions of tonnes of potential site allocations in local development frameworks as a result of revised national guidelines for regional apportionment potentially worth hundreds of £ millions.
• MPA successfully negotiated the retention of the cement sector’s UK Climate Change Levy reduced rate, worth £20 million per annum.
• MPA Cement and BLA secure potential savings of £ millions for members when they helped to ensure their industries were confirmed as vulnerable to carbon leakage under phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
• MPA protected mineral development exemption from the scope of Community Infrastructure Levy worth £10 - 50 million per annum.
• MPA helped to develop a protocol for recovered fuel oil, allowing its continued use and saving the industry about £10 million.
• MPA successfully lobbied the Government to freeze the rate of the aggregates levy for two years, saving the industry some £7 million in 2010/11.
MPA represents the whole of the British cement sector, 90 per cent of aggregates production and 95 per cent of both asphalt and ready-mixed concrete.
To see our membership pack, click here. |
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