Contaminated Land - funding
There are several measures which support the clean up of contaminated land, and these are described below.
Contaminated Land Capital Projects Programme
Bids for grant under Defra’s capital support programme for 2007/08 have been invited from English local authorities – details
The deadline for receiving bids is 17h00 Friday, 30 November 2007.
Word versions of application forms CL1 and CL2 (mentioned in the invitation) are here:
Form CL1: “Intrusive site Investigations”
Form CL2; “remediation of Contaminated Sites”
PDF versions are available in the Defra Forms & Guidance page
Background to the Programme
Capital support has been provided for number of years to English local authorities, and since 1997/98 to the Environment Agency, for their land contamination responsibilities - see Table 1 below.
Since 2000/01 the programme has also assisted local authorities to fulfil their responsibilities under the "Part IIA" contaminated land regime which was introduced on 1 April 2000, including the costs of site investigation and also remediation in certain cases. It also provides support to certain other authorities with relevant responsibilities.
In addition, the Government has supported the revenue costs of dealing with contaminated land through its revenue support grant to LAs, and grant-in-aid to the Agency. Other Government programmes, such as those delivered by English Partnerships, also contribute to reducing the legacy of land contamination.
Table 1
| Defra capital support to contaminated landProjects – England 3 | |||
Year |
Budget |
Support to LAs (Outturns) 2 |
Support to EA (Outturns) |
1990/01 |
£33m |
£ 7.9m |
- |
1991/92 |
£30m |
£ 9.3m |
- |
1992/93 |
£25m |
£ 9.6m |
- |
1993/94 |
£12m |
£12.8m |
- |
1994/95 |
£12m |
£14.1m |
- |
1995/96 |
£13m |
£13.4m |
- |
1996/97 |
£14m |
£13.4m |
- |
1997/98 |
£14m |
£13.7m |
£0.5m |
1998/99 |
£15m |
£11.2m |
£0.9m |
1999/00 |
£17m |
£10.4m |
£1.4m |
2000/01 |
£21m |
£11.3m |
£1.0m |
2001/02 |
£21m |
£ 9.9m |
£1.2m |
2002/03 |
£20m |
£11.8m |
£1.6m |
2003/04 |
£20m |
£ 8.9m |
£1.9m |
2004/05 |
£20m |
£ 8.2m |
£2m |
2005/06 |
£17.6m 1 |
Not yet available |
Not yet available |
-
Budget was reduced to £17.6m by a decision to transfer resources to the Environment Agency main budget, instead of supporting their projects from this programme.
-
Where LA outturn has been below budget provision, Defra budget has been redeployed in other environmental areas.
-
Until 2004/05, support to LAs for contaminated land projects was known as the SCA programme.
Since 2002/03 Defra has received 742 applications. These are broken down on a year by year basis in Table 2 below.
Table 2
Applications received by Defra for capital support from English LAs |
||
Year |
No. of Authorities |
No. of applications 1 |
2002/03 |
73 |
182 |
2003/04 |
67 |
183 |
2004/05 |
91 |
210 |
2005/06 2 |
70 |
167 |
- Authorities may apply in several years for the same site where the duration of the investigation or remedial works are longer than a year. The figures are for the number of applications received each year. Not all proceeded as projects.
- The figures for 2005/06 are as at 28 February 2006. These may change as authorities can still submit applications for this financial year.
Other Government Initiatives
There are other schemes that provide help in addressing land contamination problems.
Landfill Tax Exemption
The law provides for the exemption from landfill tax for certain wastes arising from the reclamation of contaminated land. To gain the exemption you must apply to HM Revenue and Customs before removing the waste to landfill. If the reclamation qualifies, Customs will issue an exemption certificate. You can find more details in the Notice LFT2 Reclamation of contaminated land, which you can also get by calling the Customs' National Advice Service on 0845 010 9000.
Corporation Tax Relief
Under the Finance Act 2001, enhanced relief for expenditure on remediation of contaminated land was introduced. Arrangements for claiming contaminated land tax credits are set out in the notes that go with corporation tax returns each year. Notes that go with Corporation tax returns form CT600 have details on page 10, note 13. The Finance Act can be found on the OPSI website.
Department for Communities and Local Government:regeneration programmes
The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) is responsible for a range of regeneration and other initiatives relevant to restoration of damaged land
Page last modified:
9 November 2007
Page published: 30 June 2003