Landfill Tax

The Government introduced landfill tax in 1996 to discourage the disposal of waste to landfill and promote more environmentally sustainable methods of waste management. The Landfill Communities Fund and Scottish Landfill Communities Fund allows Landfill Operators (LOs) to contribute a portion of their landfill tax liability to community and environmental organisations to 'offset' some of the negative impacts of living in the vicinity of a landfill site.

Any waste that is discarded which cannot be reused, reprocessed or recycled may ultimately be disposed of in a landfill site. To encourage Landfill site Operators (LOs) to re-use, recycle, recover more value from waste and use more environmentally friendly methods of waste disposal, Landfill Tax is charged on each tonne of waste sent to landfill.

Since its inception in 1996, over £1.3 billion has been spent on more than 50,000 projects across the UK. For further information, please visit www.entrust.org.uk or see HMRC’s general guide to Landfill Tax.

Landfill Communities Fund

The Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) is an innovative tax credit scheme enabling operators of landfill sites in England and Northern Ireland to contribute money to organisations enrolled with the regulator, ENTRUST as Environmental Bodies (EBs).

EBs carry out projects in England, Northern Ireland and Wales that comply with the objectives (Objects) set out in The Landfill Tax Regulations 1996 (Regulations).

LOs are able to redirect a small proportion of landfill tax liability (currently 5.3%) to support a wide range of community and environmental projects in the vicinity of their landfill sites through the LCF. The LCF is regulated by ENTRUST on behalf of HM Revenue & Customs, and the projects are delivered by enrolled EBs.

The Scottish Landfill Communities Fund

The Scottish Landfill Communities Fund (SLCF) is a tax credit scheme, linked to Scottish Landfill Tax that encourages landfill site operators to provide contributions to Approved Bodies, who can then pass the funds onto community and environmental projects. The SLCF replaced the UK scheme in Scotland on 01 April 2015.

Funding must be passed from a landfill operator via Approved Bodies to a project as illustrated below. Landfill operators cannot directly fund projects and cannot control how SLCF funding is spent.

Projects are organisations that have been awarded funding (enrolled) by one or more Approved Bodies. The grant of funding is to carry out a specific project that meets the criteria pf the SLCF. Projects are operated on a not-for-profit basis.

Projects arrange for their project to be delivered and comply with the requirements of the Approved Body funding them. These requirements will include reporting on project progress and money spent.