About the Landfill Communities Fund

About the Landfill Communities Fund

The Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) is an innovative tax credit scheme enabling operators of landfill sites in England and Northern Ireland to contribute money to organisations enrolled with ENTRUST as Environmental Bodies (EBs).

EBs are able to use this money to deliver projects in England and Northern Ireland. ENTRUST was appointed as the regulator of the LCF scheme in 1996, our role is to ensure that LCF monies are spent in compliance with the Landfill Tax Regulations 1996 (Regulations). We do so by assessing all projects before LCF monies are spent and regulating the activities of enrolled EBs.

The Government introduced landfill tax in 1996 to discourage the disposal of waste to landfill and promote more environmentally sustainable methods of waste management.

Landfill Operators (LOs) are organisations which are licensed to run landfill sites. LOs may be private companies, local authority owned companies, local authorities or even sole traders. LOs contribute to the LCF by claiming a tax credit against the landfill tax liability for a contribution to an enrolled EB.

While all LOs in England and Northern Ireland are eligible to claim this tax credit not all do. For the most part those which do choose to contribute to the LCF, do so through a funding organisation. These organisations are enrolled with ENTRUST in order to distribute LCF monies to individual project applicants on behalf of the LO.

Eligibility for funding

The Regulations impose various eligibility criteria for projects to receive funding, namely projects must be within 10 miles of an Environment Agency registered landfill site in England or Northern Ireland and must match one of a number of objects (or areas of work) which are defined within the regulations. These are as follows:

  • Object A - the reclamation, remediation or restoration of land which cannot currently be used;
  • Object B - the prevention of potential for pollution or the remediation of the effects of the pollution;
  • Object D - the provision, maintenance or improvement of a public park or another public amenity;
  • Object DA - the conservation or promotion of biodiversity; and
  • Object E- the restoration of a place of religious worship or of historic or architectural interest.

Applicants should know that not all funders, fund all of the above types of projects and they may have their own requirements, for example, being within a specific distance of one of their landfill sites. You can find out more about funders, and those who may fund in your area, on our Finding Funding page. You can also watch our videos, which offer an introduction to the LCF, and an overview of the most common project Object types.

Obtaining Funding

The most common way of obtaining funding under the scheme is to apply to one of the funding organisations. These organisations may have further eligibility criteria beyond those stipulated by the Regulations. 

All projects must be registered with, and approved by ENTRUST prior to any LCF monies being spent. While most funding organisations will register projects on behalf of their project applicants, some will require the applicants to enrol with ENTRUST as an EB so that they can register their own projects.

You can find further information to help you understand the scheme on the following pages:

Finding Funding

Enrolling as an Environmental Body (EB)

Need Help?

Registering a project

We also have a number of Resources and How To Guides

You can also call our Helpline on 01926 488 300 (Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm) and they can help to explain the scheme, provide advice and guidance on the LCF and direct you to your next steps.