National land management charity The Land Trust has warned that a Treasury review into how Landfill Tax receipts are spent could jeopardise long-term investment.
A review has been launched after the Treasury said that environmental bodies have generated too large a surplus from the Landfill Communities Fund that takes a proportion of Landfill Tax receipts for community benefit.
The Land Trust chief executive Euan Hall (pictured) said: “The Landfill Communities Fund has been vital to the delivery of both community and environmental projects across the country.
“Grants from funders including Biffa Award, SITA Trust and The Veolia Environmental Trust have allowed us to transform a closed landfill site into a country park, improve one of the UK’s most important sites for invertebrates, and create new habitats at a derelict ex-coal mine.
“In order to provide effective and sustainable land management and not just a ‘flash in the pan’ investment which burns out very quickly, there has to be a long term strategy, which is why there shouldn’t be a great panic to distribute the money.
“Instead a carefully thought-out funding policy such as The Land Trust deploys, is a much better way to allow communities to reap the rewards from generation to generation.
“Like many charities, we rely on funding to provide a sustainable approach to managing community land and we are proud of our track record in delivering long term funding which consistently delivers results for the benefits of communities. Simply put, we are in it for the long haul.
“With that in mind, we ask the Government to carefully consider any supposed ‘improvement’ to the Landfill Communities Fund. Such impatience could have devastating long term consequences.”
