7. Small Firms Impacts Test
60. Many of the businesses likely to be affected by the Directive will be small businesses - including farmers, the property and construction sectors, dry cleaners and petrol stations. Examples of how small businesses would be affected by the proposals are as follows:
- Property sector likely to be affected by requirement to conduct Soil Status Reports on all sites being sold, upon which potentially polluting activities (as listed in Annex II of the Directive) have taken place. Millions of transactions likely across EU25 (with UK likely to require higher than average number of Soil Status Reports), imposing significant administrative and economic costs on all property transactions.
- Construction sector due to increased construction costs. The materials and construction techniques required to mitigate the effects of soil sealing are likely to be more costly than standard techniques.
- Farmers running IPPC sized pig or poultry units (750 sows/2,000 finishing pigs; or 40,000 poultry places). As a result of the provisions on contaminated land, soils on these farms may have to be sampled even though it is expected that generally there will not be a significant risk of harm to human health or the environment.
- The soil sealing provisions in the Directive also have the potential to significantly affect small business (farmers for example) by adding to their administrative costs, particularly if at present they rely on Permitted Development Rights for developing their property.
61. We are in the process of conducting a more in depth Small Firms Impact Test. The Small Business Service will be consulted over the coming weeks, in advance of a preliminary public consultation, which will be launched in July. The results of the Small Firms Impact Test will be included in the Partial RIA, which will accompany the preliminary consultation.