I wish to address the clause because I am concerned that the Government are applying double standards in their attempt to justify a very significant increase in the aggregates levy of more than 20 per cent. after the levy has been stable for a number of years. The justification in the Red Book is that it will encourage the sustainable use of resources as some kind of green measure. Yet the Government then provide themselves with an exemption—they are saying that that is suitable for the private sector, but not the public sector. Highways have always been exempt from the aggregates levy and highways authorities are probably the largest users of aggregates in the country. Now the Government are seeking to exempt the railways—another Government user of aggregates. How do the Government square that? Should they not be subject to the same sustainability argument?

The main reason that I think that the clause applies a double standard is that increasing the cost of construction for UK-sourced materials will simply encourage the importing of materials. That was brought home to me when I read the comments of Mr. John Webster, who I believe is from a trade association. He said:

“There will be singing and dancing in the streets of Dublin and Brussels tonight as the Chancellor tilts even further the operational cost balance towards our overseas competitors”.

Many building products that can use pre-cast concrete for which aggregates are the main feedstock can alternatively use building materials made of timber imported from over seas. The environmental impact of encouraging imports of heavy and substantial building materials is far more significant than the alleged negative environmental impact of extracting aggregate resources. This country has plenty of the latter—they are not in scarce supply and can be sustainably extracted. It is a mockery to claim that the measure before us is anything other than a revenue-raising measure by the Government. Admittedly, it would not raise enormously significant revenues—according to the Red Book, the impact would be £40 million in the first year. None the less, it is significant for the construction industry because it will put up its costs. Those costs are not just for major infrastructure   projects—it will put up the cost of the Olympics, over which the Government have been embarrassed already. It will also put up the cost of affordable housing, about which all Committee members will be concerned. The measure has not been thought through. It is a penny-pinching and inappropriate tax-raising measure cloaked in greenery.