Britain's largest cement plant has economic worth valued

Hope Cement plant (Breedon group) has had an independent economic assessment report on its contribution to the local economy, which has been estimated at GBP53m.

The economic impact assessment report was commissioned from global management, engineering and development consultancy Mott Macdonald by Breedon. Its aim was to establish how much the works contributes both financially and in terms of employment to the Peak District National Park (PDNP).

The 2017 report reveals the plant employed more than 260 people, (202 directly, 44 indirectly and 16 as induced jobs), accounting for 6.8 per cent of the Park's total economic output and 1.7 per cent of its total employment. This represents an increase of more than 10 per cent over 2013, the year for which Mott Macdonald produced its last report, when the Hope works contributed around GBP45m, with roughly the same number of direct employees.

The Hope cement works accounts for around 15 per cent of UK cement production, which is currently running at almost 10Mta. Nearly half its direct employees live within the PDNP itself, supporting the area by spending their wages locally.

In addition, around GBP3.7m of supplier expenditure by the site is with firms based in the PDNP. In 2017, the Hope cement works supported nearly 60 additional jobs from those direct and indirect impacts, contributing another GBP2m to the local economy. This means that for every 10 jobs created in the PDNP, almost three additional jobs are created from the multiplier impact of the Breedon site.

Hope has the capacity to produce around 1.5Mta of Breedon Portland, Breedon Portland Plus and Breedon Rapid cement. That equates to more than 90 six-storey office buildings or 28 community hospitals, 125,000 houses or 100 schools.