General Guidance Notes

Funding & Guidance General Guidance Notes

Background

Tax on Landfill Waste was introduced in 1996 to promote a shift to more environmentally sustainable methods of waste management. The Suffolk Environmental Trust is a Distributive Environmental Body (DEB), which distributes money donated by the Landfill Operators (LOs) under the Landfill Communities Fund to eligible projects across Suffolk.

Applicant projects are welcomed from properly-constituted not-for-profit organisations, and assessed by a Board of Trustees representing a wide range of interests across Suffolk. All Trustees make an annual Declaration of Interests, and are required to refrain from voting on any project in which they have an interest. The Trust also operates an Equal Opportunities Policy.

Nearest Landfill

All projects must be within 10 miles of a registered Landfill Site. A full list of Registered Landfill Sites can be obtained from SET or from the Customs & Excise website. These currently include sites at:
Acton, Barham, Bramford, Brightwell, Bury St Edmunds, Creeting St Mary, Foxhall, Flixton, Great Blakenham, Holton, Ipswich, Kentford, Lackford, Lowestoft, Newmarket, Sweffling, Wangford.
But if you are near the county border, you may also fall within the 10-mile radius of a Landfill Site operating in a neighbouring county.

Regulation of the LCF

ENTRUST is a private sector, not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee (but not a registered charity) which is approved by HM Customs & Excise as the regulator of the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. ENTRUST’s prime role is to audit and inspect Environmental Bodies to ensure their compliance with the LTCS Regulations 1996. All applications for funding under the Scheme must receive ENTRUST approval before grants can be made, and SET applies to ENTRUST for this approval on behalf of successful applicants. ENTRUST can be contacted at:

ENTRUST
6th Floor, Acre House, 2 Town Square
SALE, Cheshire, M33 7WZ
Tel: 0161-972-0044 Fax: 0161-972-0055

Websites: www.entrust.org.uk and www.ltcs.org.uk

NB. ENTRUST does not make grants to projects.

THIRD PARTY CONTRIBUTOR (TPC)

Under the LCF Regulations the donating Landfill Operators (LOs) can choose to divert up to 6.5% of their Landfill Tax liability to Environmental Bodies (EBs); they are then able to claim back 90% of this sum as a Tax Credit from HM Customs & Excise. Making these payments to the Environmental Bodies therefore costs the Landfill Operators 10% of the contribution made. Most LOs are only willing to make payment to the EBs where this 10% is reimbursed to them, and so all successful applicants to SET must find an independent Third Party Contributor (TPC) – either an individual or an organisation – to make a donation to the funding LO to the value of 10% of the SET grant offer. The TPC must have no contractual connection with either the applicant, the EB or the LO. Arrangements must be made for the payment of the Contribution directly from the TPC to the relevant LO (without passing through the Applicant Body’s bank account) prior to payment of the SET grant to the project.

Public Access

All Category D and E projects must prove that they can meet the public access requirement. Funded amenities must be available for public use or hire for a minimum of 4 evenings a week, or 2 days a week, or 104 days per year, or 12 weeks per year. Projects involving buildings will be required to submit their written Lettings Policy; other project types will be required to publicise the availability of their amenity in a suitable media (local newsletter, Noticeboard, etc)

Publicity to the Donor

All funded projects are required to provide due recognition and publicity to the LCF, SET and the donating Landfill Operator. This usually involves mentioning them in any press releases or similar publicity issued, and may also involve using the relevant logos on Plaques, interpretative signage, or other similar Contributor’s Boards.

Level of Funding

As a general rule, the Trustees will consider applications for up to 50% of a project's cost, up to a maximum of £27,500 for village halls, community centres, and other such buildings; and a maximum of £13,500 for children's play areas, sports projects, and similar recreation projects. Grants of over £27,500 are only offered in exceptional circumstances.

VAT

SET usually makes payment of grants inclusive of VAT, and cannot become involved in the reclaiming of VAT. You must state in your Application if you are registered for VAT and intend to reclaim VAT; if so, SET will make any grant offer to you exclusive of VAT. If you do not declare your intention to reclaim VAT, but later go ahead and do so, you will be liable to repay the VAT element to SET under the Landfill Tax Regulations.

Financially Viable

You must show that your project is Financially viable, by demonstrating that you are capable of raising the amount of money required to carry your project through and, where applicable, to sustain it after the initial development. This means that, before you even submit your application to SET, you should have gone through a competitive tendering process to obtain firm quotes for the works required. If you need to approach a number of different funding organisations to achieve your fund-raising target, you should co-ordinate these applications so that they are all made as close together as possible, as most potential funders will need to take into consideration your applications in hand.

Inspections

The SET Project Officer has the right to inspect the project at any reasonable time both during or upon completion of the works to ensure that funds are being used only for the purposes specified in the Application and that the project continues to meet the Landfill Tax criteria. Any defaults in the Funding Agreement will result in a written warning and may ultimately result in the termination of funding by SET and/or the reclaiming of any grant monies already paid.

Examples of Projects which Do Not Qualify

Listed below are examples of project types which do not normally meet the project criteria set by ENTRUST or by SET.

Car parks, highways, residential streets, roads or pavements
Works to or in the grounds of schools, hospitals, hospices, day care or residential centres
Tools and machinery
Churches – funding for fabric repairs & structural work is available from Suffolk Historic Churches Trust. But SET may, exceptionally, consider projects which promote other community, non-religious which promote other community use
Bus services, minibus services, vehicles or other methods of transportation
Revenue related costs such as staff posts and costs
Projects to visual enhancements such as a view
Residential areas or buildings
Village or town centre enhancements such as walkways, street works, street furniture, signage
CDs, web sites or remote interpretation about a site
Public conveniences
Allotments or other growing projects
Charity buildings, offices of charities, citizen advice bureau’s, advice centres, head offices

Complaints procedure

Complaints should be addressed in the first instance to the Chairman of the Trust, and marked “Private & Confidential”. At the Chairman’s discretion the complaint shall be investigated and the findings reported to the Trustees at the next available Board Meeting, where an appropriate response and/or actions shall be agreed.