LRTR Boost your Tax Savings & Unlocking Toxic Land

ALUN OLIVER FRICS, Managing Director of E³ Consulting, was recently published in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) Land Journal, discussing the intrinsic benefits the tax relief on remediation of land and long-term derelict sites can have and why this is an under-utilised relief.

Alun highlights the valuable benefits of Land Remediation Tax Relief (LRTR) - designed to encourage brownfield site regeneration and save you money – so why are relatively few firms making claims?

Almost exactly 20 years ago, the UK government introduced land remediation tax relief (LRTR) as part of the Finance Act 2001 with the aim of making brownfield site regeneration more affordable. Two decades on, is the relief still supporting rejuvenation of our towns, cities and former industrial sites?

LRTR offers a significant boost to regeneration, but many more claims should be possible, while many developers are not collecting data effectively on their projects. For some, this is because the data collection costs and tax benefits are not aligned; the project teams are reluctant to collect data as they would have to bear the costs, while the tax benefit sits at head office level. Furthermore, they or their advisers either consider it uneconomic to claim, or have little or no awareness – let alone experience – of presenting and negotiating claims with HMRC. Consequently, firms may be paying too much tax.

THE FULL ARTICLE AS PUBLISHED IN THE RICS LAND JOURNAL ON 29 JULY 2021 IS AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS LINK TO OUR ARTICLE PAGE.