A new report has claimed Britain is failing to plan for the future minerals required for new homes, infrastructure, manufacturing, energy security and climate adaptation.
The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is now urging the UK Government to put essential minerals at the heart of its growth agenda by resetting the minerals planning system.
A worsening decline in the long-term replenishment of domestic mineral reserves across Britain is revealed in the MPA’s new Annual Mineral Planning Survey (AMPS), based on 2025 figures. The report warns that government policy, exacerbated by an under-resourced mineral planning system, is frustrating the industry’s ability to sustain future supply of sand, gravel and crushed rock. The MPA highlights that this will also impact future capacity to produce downstream products like concrete and asphalt.
The report examines the long-term replenishment rate of essential minerals, which compares sales volumes from existing permitted reserves and new planning permissions that replenish them.
At 122 million tonnes, annual sales of primary aggregates in 2025 fell to their lowest level since 2013 – yet new permissions for extraction continue to fall further behind the rate of consumption.
Over the past decade, only 49 tonnes of new sand and gravel reserves have been permitted for every 100 tonnes extracted. The position for crushed rock is even more alarming, with just 32 tonnes replaced for every 100 tonnes sold, following 13 consecutive years in which sales have exceeded new permissions.
The report comes as new prime minister Andy Burnham focuses on re-industrialisation, regional renewal, building at scale and accelerating infrastructure delivery. The MPA is calling on the new administration to recognise that none of these aspirations can be achieved without a sufficient and timely supply of domestic minerals.
Mark Russell, MPA executive director for planning and mineral resources, said, “The evidence is clear. Britain’s mineral reserves are steadily being run down because a lack of investment in the planning system is failing to encourage new permissions from keeping pace with extraction. Even during a period of weaker demand from the construction industry, replenishment rates continue to deteriorate.
“We support Andy Burnham’s aspiration for re-industrialisation – to ‘build more’ and ‘make more’ – but we can’t do that without raw materials. Britain continues to neglect mineral planning, even though this is the only route by which essential raw materials are made available to enable construction and manufacturing.”
