How to apply for funding to investigate or remediate contaminated land.
We run the Contaminated Land Capital Projects Programme to help local authorities in England cover the capital cost of implementing the contaminated land regime under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Defra funds this work.
The programme was previously administered by Defra, and we provided technical input. We became responsible for running the programme in July 2010.
Purpose of the programme
The programme funds two types of work:
- Intrusive site investigations, which aim to find out whether a site is contaminated and, if so, to inform how it should be remediated.
- Site remediations, which aim to ensure that contamination at a site will no longer pose a significant risk to people or the environment.
Over the last ten years the programme has funded more than 1,100 projects across England, protecting people, homes and the environment.
How the programme works
A local authority applies to us for funding, explaining what a proposed project would involve, why they think it’s necessary, and how much money it needs.
- We assess the proposed project against technical merit and value for money principles, adjusting proposed work and costs if necessary.
- We give the application a priority score based on the risk to human health and scale of environmental impacts.
- We decide which projects to approve, using priority scoring to sift bids if we need to.
The local authority does the work and submits claims for payment either once the works are complete, or on an interim basis as the works are being carried out. From 1 April 2011 the programme was combined with our own capital projects programme for special sites, with all funding coming out of a single ‘pot’.
What happened in previous years
The report below summarises how much money local authorities have been offered since the programme began in 1990 up to 31 March 2012. It shows more detailed information from 2006 onwards when the programme changes to capital grants including how many bids were received each year and for what type of work (investigation or remediation):
We recieved 96 bids in the 2011/12 financial year. Our summary document gives a breakdown of what type of projects the bids were for, what proportion met the eligibility and value for money criteria, and which projects were funded after prioritisation:
What the funding was spent on in 2011/12 on both local authority and Environment Agency sites:
Summary of the approved projects for 2013/13
Amount of funding available for 2013/14
The initial budget for 2013/14 is a minimum of £2m with the potential for increase in-year if departmental underspends become available. As before, we will set aside a proportion of this as a 'contingency pot' which project managers can bid into on a first come first served basis if they find they need contingency funding.
Documents
The grant guidance includes further details on this year’s arrangements. It also covers the eligibility and prioritisation criteria:
The prioritisation tool is a pdf version of the spreadsheet that our technical assessors use to prioritise bids:
We administer a number of local authority grant programmes. How we do this and comply with the relevant legislation for each scheme is explained in the grant memorandum, available on our local authority and internal drainage board funding page:
We have also produced some top tips based on experiences of local authorities:
Forms
The application forms are similar to previous years, with a few updates to reflect the new financial year and changes to terminology following the revised statutory guidance. The CL1 and CL2 forms are currently in read-only format, the writeable versions will be uploaded shortly:
Please email completed forms to the contaminated land grants team.
National remediation contractors framework and national contaminated land consultancy framework
To assist with schemes funded under the programme you can use the services of Environment Agency supplier frameworks. We’ve developed a National Contaminated Land Consultancy Framework (NCCF), currently scheduled to go live in April 2013.
As with our National Remediation Contractors Framework (NRCF), launched last year, the NCCF is freely available to all public sector bodies. The framework contains six suppliers with the primary focus of delivering the full range of land quality services typically required by a public body ie EIA, SEA, desk study, investigation design and implementation, risk assessment, remediation options appraisal, design, overseeing and validation.
Actual remediation implementation is handled by our NRCF companies, however these two frameworks are designed to complement each other.
For more information about the frameworks please contact us by email.
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