I recently visited a greenhouse facility to help a customer with their compliance for the NFU Climate Change Levy (CCL) scheme. The Climate Change Levy is a tax charged on gas, electricity, LPG, coal and coke used by businesses in the UK. There is a tax relief available for businesses in a number of specific energy-intensive sectors, in return for meeting agreed energy efficiency targets.

The NFU is the trade association responsible for the horticulture, pig and poultry CCL schemes. We (FEC Energy) administer the scheme for the NFU and provide expert help and guidance to members of the scheme.

As part of the CCL scheme, companies have to comply with the 70% rule to ensure that you receive the discount. The rule means that at least 70% of your site’s annual energy use must be directly involved with the eligible processes. The eligible processes are activities involved in the rearing of indoor pig production, growing horticultural crops in protected structures and rearing poultry for meat or egg production.

On all sites, there will be some energy used for activities that are not part of the eligible processes such as offices, pack houses, workshops and canteens etc. The energy used for these should not exceed 30% of the total energy use for the site. This can be a pretty time consuming and complicated process, which is why I went to the site to carry out an audit of all the energy used within the non-eligible processes for this grower.

The CCL tax rates will increase substantially in 2019. It has never been more important to be part of the NFU Climate Change Levy scheme, as the rate of relief on CCL paid for electricity and gas will offset the tax increase.

However, in July 2018 the ability to sign up to the scheme will close to new applications. So now is the time to join the scheme so that you can benefit from the CCL tax discount. 

Talk to the CCL team to discuss the eligibility for your new site on the scheme by calling 024 7669 3043.