Land Reclamation Relief

[Little_Miss_Tidy]

I've bought a plot of land with planning permission for a single house.  It used to have a bungalow on the site, but that was demolished a few years ago.  As part of the planning application, they did soil surveys and found signs of lead contamination, requiring large amounts of the soil to be replaced and barriers installed.  In the report from the specialist company, there's a mention of "land reclamation relief", stating that up to 150% of the cost of remediation works might be reclaimable through this scheme (in an effort to encourage the use of brownfield sites).  But I've looked into it, and it seems to be relief from UK corporation tax, so only claimable if you pay that (which I, as a mere self-builder, don't).  And it has to be claimed by the owner of the land - so it's not something the decontamination contractors would be able to claim and pass on the savings to me.  (I guess there would be loads of companies offering this service for free if that were the case!)

 

Is my understanding correct, or is there a way that self-builders can benefit from this relief?

[Bozza]

I think you’ve assessed that correctly TBH, but the specialist groundworks should definitely be zero rated for VAT.

 

We had to remove hundreds of tonnes from our site (though it wasn’t contaminated).    And some asbestos roofing from an old building, which certainly was.   Specialist firms were very expensive so I did my research and found alternative ways to remove everything (safely & properly).  
 

It therefore may be possible to do some of the required works cheaper than what I assume is a significant quote.   I’d imaging the actually disposal of the contaminated soil is the biggy.