Waste Land Taxes
SOURCE: CIWM, JUNE 2008
Important guidance on the end-of-waste status of excavated wastes is on its way following publication, by CL:AIRE, of a draft Code of Practice (CoP) for determining when excavated wastes may be reused, either with or without treatment. The CoP has been issued at a good time, as developers struggle with the increased reuse of excavated soils, not only in preparation for the introduction of compulsory Site Waste Management Plans, but also in light of the Treasury’s recent Budget announcement that the Landfill Tax Exemption (LTE) for contaminated soils will be phased out from 2012.
The abolition of the LTE will allow the Government to extend land remediation tax relief (claimed against a company’s corporation tax for remediation of contaminated land), and should shift brownfield strategy further towards treatment (rather than disposal) of contaminated soils, the latter further dissuaded as the standard rate of landfill tax continues to rise by £8 a year.
Increased treatment of soils is also in line with the aims of the ill-fated Soils Directive, and it is notable that the UK is nonetheless consulting on a Soils Strategy, citing the loss of good quality soils as waste as a priority area for further consideration. These factors together all look set to make the ‘dig and dump’ technique of brownfield clean-up an increasingly expensive and unsustainable option, and should yield opportunities for those pioneering innovative treatment technologies, or those who seek to argue that, in law, the excavated material is not actually “waste”.
AUTHOR: Vincent Brown
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