WIREDGOV

Landfill Benefit hits £1bn

HM REVENUE AND CUSTOMS News Release (Ref: NAT 17/09) issued by COI News Distribution Service. 18 February 2009

Contributions from landfill operators to the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) hit £1bn today.

The fund, introduced in 1996 to redresses some of the environmental costs of landfill, has benefited more than 24,000 local projects.

Angela Eagle, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said:

"The fund is an excellent example of the Government and the private and charity sectors working together to make local communities better places to live.

"Some 2,500 environmental bodies alone are involved in the scheme. Parks, community centres, historic buildings and youth volunteer environment schemes have all benefited."

Funds from the LCF help redress some of the environmental costs of landfill by improving the environment in the vicinity of landfill sites. Projects benefiting include reclaimed land, improvements to community facilities, repairs to places of worship and habitat creation in support of biodiversity.

The LCF works by allowing landfill site operators to claim a tax credit of the contributions they make to Environmental Bodies (EBs) for spending on specified projects.

Notes for editors

1. The Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) allows a maximum of six per cent of an operator's annual landfill tax liability to be claimed as a tax credit, giving a potential value to the scheme of about £70m credit claimable.

2. The Fund is managed by an organisation independent of government, the Environmental Trust Scheme Regulatory Body Ltd (ENTRUST), formed specifically to regulate the Fund.

3. ENTRUST is a not-for-profit, private sector company funded through a levy on Environmental Bodies' (EBs) contributions to the scheme, currently set at 2.28 per cent. ENTRUST is responsible for enrolling qualifying EBs and assuring that contributions are properly spent. It can revoke an EB's enrolment if it is not satisfied that a contribution has been used in accordance with the regulations.

4. See the ENTRUST website at http://www.entrust.org.uk/.

Issued by HM Revenue & Customs Press Office
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