§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what response he has received from the Manufacturing and Construction Industries Alliance and the Housebuilders Federation in connection with his recent consultation about possible exemption from the landfill tax for contaminated land; if that response was supportive of his proposals; and if he will make a statement; [22291]
(2) if he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government policy on the clearing and developing of contaminated sites; and what part the proposed landfill tax will play in implementation of this policy. [22292]
§ Mr. Heathcoat-AmoryThe Government wish to encourage the development of brownfield rather than greenfield sites and has concluded that the imposition of the landfill tax on certain wastes arising from contaminated land would be contrary to this objective. I therefore announced in the debate on the Finance Bill in Standing Committee E on 8 February 1996,Official Report, column 209, that we would consider whether we could identify and ring-fence an exemption from landfill tax for historically contaminated land. I said that if it proved possible to develop a suitable exemption, this would be introduced at Report stage on the current Finance Bill.
Customs have consulted widely on a draft clause linking the exemption to planning approval, in order to provide an objective criterion for eligibility to the exemption. This consultation included those involved in clearing up contaminated land and other interested trade concerns, including the Manufacturing and Construction Industries Alliance and the House Builders Federation. Although the House Builders Federation welcomed the intentions behind the drafting of the clause, it and other bodies concluded that the clause would not achieve its 354W intended aims. This is because in most cases involving the removal of contaminated land for development, no planning permission is required. The view was also expressed in other replies to the consultation and it is now clear that the proposal would not meet all those cases where exemption is appropriate.
We now propose to provide an exemption for the waste from the clearance of contaminated land where clearance of all or part of the contamination is necessary to allow the land to be used for the intended purpose when the development or work on the land is complete. The exemption will apply to waste arising from the reclamation of the land but current polluters will not be able to benefit from it. To help landfill site operators to know whether or not waste qualifies for the exemption, we envisage that there will be a system of certification by Customs.