The dimension (building) stone sector, while specialised, plays a vital role within the UK construction material supply industry in ensuring that the unique local characteristics of natural stone-built areas of the UK are maintained ensuring the maintenance of local distinctiveness, and that new housing has a sense of place. In addition, there is demand from the heritage sector and from the prestige development market both at home and overseas.
While dimension stone represents a fraction of the total mineral products market, more than one million tonnes of high value stone is produced in the UK each year. Yet for too long there has been a perception amongst legislators and regulators that this represents a ‘small - scale’ cottage industry that only exists to supply the heritage market causing unnecessary restrictions on potential output which could stifle the development and competitiveness of British dimension stone, particularly in the face of overseas imports. One of the key purposes of the Dimension Stone product Group is to raise this issue with legislators and regulators to try and ensure that this important sector is allowed to work on a level playing field compared to others in the mineral extractive industry.
The MPA dimension stone product group members are all members of the Mineral Products Association and contribute valuable resources to the wide spectrum of natural geological materials and manufactured products that create our built environment with long lived, durable, attractive, and sustainable building materials being the core products.
The product group provides a forum for the discussion of issues of common interest such as legislation, health and safety, Government policy in respect of its interface with the dimension stone sector.
For more information on Dimension Stone, please contact Mark North (mark.north@mineralproducts.org), Director of Planning - Aggregates, Production and Dimension Stone - or phone on 020 7963 8000.
Dimension Stone Producers are economically and culturally significant, producing 1 million tonnes of high value stone annually. Dimension stone is used widely in new construction but is also of key importance to heritage assets and local distinctiveness.
Published: 2015