More than 200 mineral-product sites supply the stone, sand, concrete and asphalt used across Scotland, but public records do not provide a current national account of active quarries, remaining permitted reserves or regional supply.
Scotland’s plans for homes, roads, power lines, substations and renewable-energy projects depend upon materials extracted and manufactured long before construction begins.
Rock must be blasted and crushed. Sand and gravel must be worked. Concrete and asphalt must be produced and transported to sites that may be many miles from the source. These materials are heavy, relatively low in value and expensive to move over long distances, making local and regional supply important to construction costs.
Mineral Products Association Scotland says the sector produces almost 30 million tonnes of aggregates, concrete and asphalt each year from more than 200 sites. A separate study commissioned by the association estimated that primary aggregates generated £450 million in Scottish gross value added during 2024, supported 4,930 jobs and produced £99.1 million in tax contributions.
The trade body is warning that permitted reserves are not being replaced quickly enough. It has called for changes to mineral planning and environmental permitting, shared access to specialist planning expertise, continued energy support and no increase in Scottish Aggregates Tax above the equivalent UK rate.
Those are industry claims and policy requests. They do not establish that Scotland is running out of construction materials.
The more immediate problem is that the public information needed to assess future supply is incomplete.
The figure of more than 200 sites includes quarries, concrete plants, asphalt operations and other facilities. It is not a count of active primary aggregate quarries.
Revenue Scotland publishes a Scottish Aggregates Tax Register of Quarries containing registered operator names and addresses. It is a tax register rather than a national mineral-supply inventory and does not show remaining permitted reserves, annual output, projected site life or the regions supplied.
The economic study prepared by BiGGAR Economics used Scottish Assessors Association records to identify quarries and gravel pits but described its inventory as indicative rather than comprehensive. It cannot establish with certainty how many sites are currently producing crushed rock, sand or gravel or whether particular regions are approaching a supply constraint.
Scotland is not known to be running out of rock. The risk is that suitable deposits may not have permission, operating capacity or transport access in the places and timescales required by major building programmes.
A geological deposit cannot supply construction simply because it exists. It must be capable of lawful extraction, meet engineering requirements and remain commercially viable after processing and transport.
Mineral planning is also long-term. Quarries may operate for decades, while extensions and new permissions require assessment of traffic, noise, dust, water, biodiversity, landscape effects and restoration. A delayed decision may not stop a project immediately, but it can reduce the replacement supply available several years later.
The Scottish Government’s latest planning statistics do not provide a dependable current average specifically for quarry or mineral applications.
Across all major developments without processing agreements, decisions took an average of 37.4 weeks in 2024–25, with a median of 29.9 weeks. Of major applications using processing agreements, 61.4 per cent were decided within the timetable agreed by the developer and planning authority.
During the first half of 2025–26, major applications without processing agreements averaged 29.2 weeks in the first quarter and 31.9 weeks in the second. Those figures cover all major development types and do not show whether mineral applications became faster.
Historic Scottish statistics have sometimes shown mineral proposals taking longer than other development categories. The absence of a current minerals-only measure means there is no clear national account of the present quarry-planning backlog or how performance has changed.
The wider staffing evidence is clearer.
The Royal Town Planning Institute found that 89 per cent of the 28 Scottish planning authorities responding to its 2025 survey had at least one vacancy. More than 44 per cent reported between one and three vacancies, almost 30 per cent had four to six, and nearly 15 per cent had more than six.
Around one authority in nine reported vacancies equivalent to at least a third of its workforce.
The institute also found that real-terms planning expenditure had fallen by 33 per cent since 2010. More than half of surveyed planners said their teams lacked capacity frequently or all the time, rising to almost two-thirds among public-sector planners.
That does not prove that councils lack minerals specialists. No responding authority identified minerals and waste as an area in which it had recently struggled to recruit. The industry’s proposal for shared planning hubs instead suggests that specialist demand is uneven: some authorities may need access to minerals expertise without requiring a full-time post.
MPA Scotland also says taxation and energy costs are discouraging investment. The available evidence requires care.
Scottish Aggregates Tax came into force on 1 April 2026 at £2.16 per tonne, matching the UK Aggregates Levy rate for 2026–27. Scotland does not currently impose a higher headline tax rate on primary aggregate than the rest of the UK.
The immediate change is administrative. Businesses operating in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK may need to deal separately with Revenue Scotland and HM Revenue and Customs. The Scottish Government’s cross-border consultation acknowledged concerns about double taxation, avoidance and administrative burden.
Industry opposition is directed mainly at future divergence. MPA Scotland does not want the devolved rate raised above the UK levy or varied within Scotland to favour recycled material.
The Scottish Government regards the tax as part of its circular-economy policy. Producers argue that recycled aggregates cannot replace primary material in every use and depend upon the location, quality and processing of demolition waste.
Energy pressures also vary across the sector.
Quarrying, crushing and screening use fuel and electricity. Cement production is more energy-intensive because it requires sustained high temperatures. Scotland has one cement works, at Dunbar, leaving domestic cement supply more concentrated than the wider aggregates market.
The industry report says energy and climate-policy costs are affecting investment, but it does not identify Scottish projects that have been cancelled, quantify deferred spending or name the sites it says have been mothballed. Those claims should remain attributed to the association.
There is no clear evidence of an immediate Scotland-wide shortage of stone, sand, concrete or asphalt.
The concern is whether permitted local and regional supply will remain sufficient as construction demand changes.
Wind farms require stone for access tracks and foundations. Transmission projects require concrete, aggregates and roads. Housing depends upon sand, cement, asphalt and drainage materials. Offshore-energy development requires ports, reinforced surfaces and coastal infrastructure.
When nearby permitted supply is unavailable, material must travel farther.
Rail can move large volumes with lower emissions than equivalent road haulage, but most construction sites still require road delivery for the final stage. Longer transport distances would generally increase fuel use, handling and cost and could move economic activity away from Scottish producers.
The available evidence does not quantify how much additional material Scotland may need to import or how much emissions would rise under different supply scenarios.
Scotland should be able to show how many primary quarries are active, their remaining permitted reserves, annual production, expected life, transport links and the regions they serve. It should also publish current minerals-specific planning performance and identify where authorities rely upon shared or external expertise.
Without that information, national plans for housing, energy and infrastructure are being developed without a clear public account of the materials required to build them.
Sources
Mineral Products Association Scotland — Priorities for Scotland 2026
https://mpascotland.org/publications/
Mineral Products Association — The Economic Contribution of Primary Aggregates in Scotland
https://www.mineralproducts.org/MPA/media/root/Publications/2025/The-Economic-Contribution-of-Aggregates-in-Scotland-2025.pdf
Mineral Products Association — £450 million industry contribution to Scotland’s economy must be recognised
https://www.mineralproducts.org/News/2025/release33.aspx
Scottish Government — Planning Applications Statistics 2024–2025: Annual and Quarterly
https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-applications-statistics-2024-2025-annual-quarterly-october-2024-march-2025/
Scottish Government — Major Developments, Planning Applications Statistics 2024–2025
https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-applications-statistics-2024-2025-annual-quarterly-october-2024-march-2025/pages/5/
Scottish Government — Planning Applications Statistics 2025–2026: April to September 2025
https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-applications-statistics-2025-26-quarterly-april-2025-september-2025/pages/5/
Royal Town Planning Institute — State of the Profession 2025: Scotland
https://www.rtpi.org.uk/policy-and-research/state-of-the-profession-2025/state-of-the-profession-2025-scotland/
Revenue Scotland — Introduction of the Scottish Aggregates Tax
https://revenue.scot/news-publications/news/revenue-scotland-marks-introduction-scottish
Revenue Scotland — Scottish Aggregates Tax
https://revenue.scot/taxes/scottish-aggregates-tax-sat
Revenue Scotland — Scottish Aggregates Tax enrolment guidance
https://revenue.scot/taxes/scottish-aggregates-tax-sat/scottish-aggregates-tax-sat-enrolment-guidance
Scottish Government — Scottish Aggregates Tax: proposed approaches to cross-border taxation
https://consult.gov.scot/taxation-and-fiscal-sustainability/scottish-aggregates-tax-cross-border-taxation/
Mineral Products Association Scotland — Transport Efficiency
https://mpascotland.org/sustainability/transport-efficency/
