QPA demands for government to keep levy fund

The government risks losing the only environmental benefit the aggregates levy generates if it lets the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) fall by the wayside - that's the warning from the Quarry Products Association.

The ALSF, a funding stream to improve the environmental sustainability of local quarries, is set to run out in March 2008.

Simon van der Byl, director general of the QPA said: "The ALSF is the only means by which the aggregates levy actually generates any environmental benefits. Since 2002 it has funded projects which have benefited local quarrying communities, improved wildlife habitats, supported archaeology and much more."

But the assocation warned that it had already seen shortfalls in funding. It claimed that in the four years from 2002/3 to 2005/6, it received £83m of the total £117.2m total ALSF provision by the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The QPA said that with the aggregates levy increasing even further to 22% by April 2008 it wanted the government to:

• Maintain the level of ALSF funding at the originally specified £29.3m per year.
• Ring fence the ALSF to prevent the fund being used for other purposes.
• Introduce a specific objective for the fund to support the reduction of carbon emissions in the aggregates sector.

"As the rate of the levy increases, we believe that the case for maintaining the fund and refocusing on carbon reduction is compelling," van der Byl added.