Call for housing developers to receive new tax breaks over disposal of non-native invasive plants

Property developers in Coventry may be more inclined to take on financial risk with sites if tax relief was brought in for other invasive plant species as well as destructive Japanese knotweed.

HMRC should consider land remediation tax relief on giant hogweed, Himalayan balsam and other non-native flora recognised by the Government as invasive.

The call for wider tax break eligibility comes from Vicki Brook, a Tax Partner for the property and construction sectors at Azets, the UK top 10 accountancy and advisory firm.

“The Government wants to build 1.5 million homes over the next Parliament, including affordable units, to address the well-documented shortage of housing,” she said.

“Property developers in Coventry are understandably supportive but there is considerable financial risk with housing developments because of the huge upfront costs.

“Even small tax break measures could make the difference between a spade going in the ground or not. A number of sites, including urban brownfield and grey belt [low-quality green belt land], will have non-native invasive plants that require legally compliant – and expensive –disposal.

“It is not a case of dumping Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed or Himalayan balsam in a compost heap to rot down because they cannot be eradicated. Developers have little choice but to hire a specialist contractor, using chemicals which are deemed hazardous waste, with the

A Midlands law firm has received a prestigious international accreditation in recognition of its exemplary workplace culture.

Wright Hassall, based in Leamington, is celebrating after being certified as a ‘Great Place To Work’.

Great Place To Work is an ‘employer-of-choice’ certification scheme which gives recognition to companies providing a great workplace environment and is based entirely on feedback from current employees.

Wright Hassall launched its own internal anonymous employee engagement survey in 2022 as part of the firm’s vision to become an exceptional place to work.

Run every six months, the survey saw the firm make several changes to improve the workplace and benchmark improvements in staff satisfaction year-on-year.

Wright Hassall then made the decision to benchmark itself against external organisations, with an aim to achieve independent accreditation from Great Place To Work.

Every employee was given the opportunity to participate in an anonymous survey featuring 60 set questions, with the firm being required to achieve a 65 per cent response rate.

Wright Hassall achieved significantly above this, with a 76 per cent response rate – the highest response rate of any staff survey it has ever run.

Great Place To Work then analysed the results, and confirmed that Wright Hassall had achieved accreditation.

The firm will now be required to achieve re-accreditation every 12 months.

Mark Shrimpton, Chief People Officer at Wright Hassall, said: “This achievement highlights the dedication, passion and commitment of all of our staff who contribute to making our firm not only a leader in legal services, but also a fantastic workplace.

“The feedback from the survey has also given us some fantastic ideas for areas we could improve further, and we will now be taking steps to look at this.” subsequent contaminated soil disposed of with relevant environmental permits and documentation traceability. Any broadening of land remediation tax relief regarding nonnative invasive plants, not just Japanese knotweed, would be welcomed, given these particular challenges.”

Other non-native invasive plants include rhododendron ponticum and New Zealand pygmy weed, outcompeting native flora and fauna and damaging local biodiversity. Claimants of land remediation relief can receive up to 150 per cent relief on qualifying expenses, with tax refunds on capital gains.

Introduced for companies that are subject to corporation tax, the tax break was set up to encourage the development of contaminated land and buildings.