A stone’s throw away from a fort built nearly 500 years ago for Henry VIII and ringed by an 11-metre deep moat of its own, the white mills of Cemex’s Tilbury venture offer a bold statement of intent in the UK’s beleaguered construction industry.

Spending £50m ($80m) on providing the staple ingredient for an industry that is enduring its worst decline in 25 years might, to some, seem a little odd.