Aggregates levy: exemption for aggregate removed from railways etc

Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.

I simply want to ask for the tonnage of aggregate to which the Treasury expects the exemption to apply to be put on the record.

As the Committee knows, the aggregates levy is designed to bring environmental benefits by making the price of aggregates better reflect their true environmental costs, and therefore encouraging recycling and the use of alternative materials.

The clause introduces a new exemption from the levy for aggregate removed from the ground along the proposed line of a railway, tramway or monorail in the course of maintaining, constructing or improving it, provided that the aggregate was not excavated purely for the purpose of extracting it. It makes the treatment of railways, tramways and monorail consistent with those of the construction and maintenance of highways. It is also consistent with the environmental rationale, which is to give aggregate produced as a by-product a commercial advantage over directly quarried aggregate.

We expect that the cost of the revenue exemption in the clause is unlikely to exceed £3 million each year. We treat that as an estimate, therefore there are no specific calculations of the tonnage that will be affected. I hope that is sufficient information for the Committee to accept the clause.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 22 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 23 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Schedule 2 agreed to.