Govt revises landfill tax approach in Budget

The government will not introduce a single rate for landfill tax “at this time”, the chancellor Rachel Reeves announced today (November 26).

During her Autumn Budget statement, the chancellor said that, noting the concern of housebuilders, the government would not “converge to the single rate” following a consultation which proposed removing the lower rate for landfill tax to leave a single rate in 2030, meeting the standard rate.

Currently the standard rate is priced at £126.15 per tonne. The lower rate, broadly applying to inert, less polluting materials, is priced at £4.05 per tonne.

The Home Builders Federation has previously stated that introducing the single rate would mean a 3,000% increase in the tax, threatening the viability of projects.

But Reeves said the government would “prevent the gap between the two rates of landfill tax getting any wider” over the coming years.

In its Budget document, the Treasury said the government had “listened to stakeholders’ arguments made in response to the consultation, and revised its approach to ensure the reforms to landfill tax are proportionate, do not impose unavoidable costs on businesses and do not undermine the government’s target of building 1.5 million new homes in …