Axe lifted from remediation relief
The Treasury has confirmed that plans to abolish tax relief on land remediation will not go ahead
Land remediation relief is one of only four relief schemes to be reprieved from the list of 36 the government had initially planned to axe.
Respondents to the consultation on ending the tax reliefs argued that removing the land remediation relief would affect the regeneration of uneconomic brownfield sites, exacerbating the financial pressure on developers that was already mounting owing to the removal of the exemption from landfill tax for soils and waste from contaminated sites, which although agreed in 2009 will be scrapped shortly.
As a result, the Treasury concluded that removal of land remediation relief would risk undermining the government’s plans to support the housing and construction sectors through its planning reforms. Annually, approximately 1,300 companies claim land remediation relief, at a cost of about £40 million.