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Help with a knotty problem

The Budget has brought some good news in the battle against Japanese knotweed. The highly invasive plant poses enormous problems for developers, landowners and estate managers, as its deep roots are extremely difficult to eradicate and even small pieces of the plant left lying around can generate new plants.

In his Budget on 12 March, Chancellor Alistair Darling said that in the Finance Bill 2009 he intended to extend land remediation relief – tax relief available for clearing land acquired in a contaminated state – to the removal of Japanese knotweed by treatment and also to derelict land. Consultation on draft legislation will take place in the summer and the new measures are due to take effect from 1 April 2009.

Lucienne Sutton, ecolaw specialist at Dyne Solicitors Limited, said: “Japanese knotweed is so difficult to control that under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, it is classed as controlled waste, which must be disposed of safely at a licensed landfill site.  Soil containing knotweed roots can also be regarded as contaminated and if taken off a site must also be disposed of at a suitably licensed landfill site. It is also an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act to plant or cause Japanese Knotweed to spread in the wild.”