IN Brief:
- A joint letter from leading producers warns of site closures after years of weak demand.
- Companies cite risks to UK aggregates, asphalt, cement, and concrete capacity.
- The group calls for near-term housing, infrastructure, and cost interventions.
Executives from several of the UK’s largest mineral products and construction materials producers have written jointly to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, warning that prolonged weakness in construction demand is pushing parts of the domestic supply base towards closure.
In the letter, the signatories say that, with sales declining over several years and output at historically low levels, businesses are being forced to cut costs and reconsider the future of production sites. “In order to protect the long-term viability of our businesses, we are facing the difficult decisions of what to cut, which sites to close, and who to make redundant,” the letter states. “There is a real risk that we will have to reduce the industry’s production capacity significantly in the face of the prolonged weakness of the economy.”
The group argues that closures would not be easily reversible. Once a quarry, asphalt plant, cement facility, or associated logistics operation is shut, restarting it can require fresh permits, capital reinvestment, and a workforce that may already have dispersed, increasing the likelihood that any lost output becomes a permanent reduction in UK self-sufficiency.
The letter also frames capacity as a strategic issue, tying domestic supply to the reliability of delivery for national programmes. It warns that reduced UK production would increase exposure to geopolitical disruption in the supply of materials it describes as essential to both defence and energy infrastructure.
The signatories set out four areas where they say government action could provide rapid economic and social benefits. These include measures to accelerate housebuilding, rapid public funding into infrastructure — with road maintenance cited as a priority — incentives for private infrastructure spending through a “super-deduction”, and targeted support to reduce costs across the construction sector.
Chris Leese, executive chair at the Mineral Products Association, said: “We simply cannot go on like this and frankly the solutions are not that complex — they just require the chancellor to prioritise growth and take immediate action. Our industry has hit historic lows in key markets, so we need a concerted effort from those in government to make policy decisions that inspire confidence.”
The letter is signed by members of the Mineral Products Association board, including Mike Pearce, CEO at Breedon GB; Bill Brett, chairman at The Brett Group; Lex Russell, managing director, UK materials, at Cemex; James Day, managing director at Day Group; Simon Willis, CEO at Heidelberg Materials; Lee Sleight, CEO at Holcim UK; Andrew Jackson, energy strategy and transition director at Lhoist Europe; Simon Bourne, CEO at Marshalls; Brian Perry, managing director at Morris and Perry; and Bevan Browne, managing director for UK materials at Tarmac.
If the warning lands, it does so against a backdrop of sustained volume weakness across core material categories, with producers increasingly balancing operational resilience against fixed-cost assets that cannot be scaled down indefinitely without impacting service levels and regional availability.
