The government recognises that to protect green belt land, most new development needs to take place on brownfield sites. However, the introduction of Landfill Regulations adds another hurdle to the development of contaminated sites. It is therefore worth looking again at the benefits and potential difficulties of taking advantage of the tax incentive provided by the government to encourage brownfield development, which was introduced in the 2001 Finance Act. This incentive - known as land remediation relief - allows a developer to claim tax relief to the equivalent of 150% of costs which can be shown to be part of the decontamination of a site. The actual saving will depend on the trading status of the company, but it effectively provides a refund of up to 45% of clean up costs. This is a potentially significant cash subsidy, and yet there has been a relatively low take-up of what should be a major incentive to redevelop sites whose value has diminished as a result of contamination.
展开▼
