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Written question asked by Richard Holden (Conservative) on Tuesday, 19 May 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 21 May 2026. It was answered by Simon Lightwood (Labour) on Friday, 29 May 2026 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Transport: Concrete

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the National Audit Office's report entitled Innovation in transport, published on 18 May 2026, what the expenditure has been by her Department and HS2 Ltd on the calcined clay acceleration plan since December 2023; and what her planned timeline is for establishing the proposed test kiln and a commercial kiln site.

Answer

Since December 2023, HS2 Ltd has spent £377,225 (net) on work to accelerate the UK adoption of calcined clay, with the aim of understanding and mitigating the blockers to the UK establishing a commercial kiln to produce calcined clay. This would enable widespread adoption of lower cost, lower carbon concrete with resource efficiency and circularity benefits.

DfT has also spent £45,000 in support of this activity. The Department is not planning to invest directly in the development of a test kiln, but has supported Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to create Advanced Market Commitments for low carbon concrete, to demonstrate the demand for the material and thus encourage the market to invest in its supply and supporting infrastructure.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
2803
Session
2026-27
Related items
Subjects
Expenditure Innovation Transport High Speed Two Concrete
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk