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Environmental regulator to help businesses
25/11/2008
Businesses across Scotland will save over a million pounds following moves by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to waive or restrict some of the fees they charge.
The environmental regulator will waive application fees for environmental permits, a move which will save over 2,000 businesses as much as £600,000 in total.
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said:
"The Scottish Government has pledged to do all it can to help hard-pressed businesses and individuals during these tough economic times. Our Scottish Recovery Plan is designed to ensure all public sector activity supports economic development.
"The waiver of application fees by SEPA for the remainder of 2008/09 shows our public bodies are willing to do what they can to ensure our economy is well-positioned for recovery.
"The waiver is part of a package of SEPA measures to support businesses. Other measures include restricting next year's fee increases to well below the retail price index, which will save over 10,000 businesses - including 3,000 in farming, 900 in manufacturing, 800 in retail and 100 in construction - around £600,000.
"SEPA will also be investing £250,000 into local environmental clean-ups. Working with communities to improve and transform local landscapes can help make areas more attractive for business investment."
SEPA Chairman David Sigsworth added:
"As Scotland's environment watchdog we in SEPA want to protect the environment and enable business and industry to realise the many economic benefits of good environmental practice. This is particularly important during these difficult times for the economy. We hope our plans will make a positive contribution to the Scottish Government's economic recovery plan."
SEPA charges businesses for processing new applications for environmental permits. Permits set conditions to protect the environment and human health from the discharge of pollutants to air, water or land and cover a wide range of activities including developments that potentially impact on the water environment, disposal of waste (eg to landfills) and industrial processes. Charges range from an average of £450 for a development impacting on the water environment to £6,500 for an industrial process. These charges will be waived for private sector applicants for the remainder of 2008/09.
SEPA also levies a subsistence charge for ongoing permits, Next year SEPA will restrict increases for application and subsistence fees in all of its main charging schemes to two per cent below the retail price index.
SEPA has already announced it is waiving groundwater environment charges for the remainder of 2008/09.