Frequently Asked Questions

Companies that operate landfill sites collect landfill tax for every tonne of waste that goes into one of their sites. The UK Government allows a proportion of this tax to be allocated to the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) to support community and environmental improvement projects. SUEZ Communities Trust is one of the funders registered to distribute LCF funding and receives its funding from SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, which owns and operates landfill sites in England.

The Landfill Communities Fund is regulated by ENTRUST.

Companies that operate landfill sites collect landfill tax for every tonne of waste that goes into one of their sites. The Scottish Government allows a proportion of this tax to be allocated to the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund (SLCF) to support community and environmental improvement projects. SUEZ Communities Trust is one of the funders registered to distribute SLCF funding and receives its funding from SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, which owns and operates landfill sites in Scotland.

The Scottish Landfill Communities Fund is regulated by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)

To be eligible to apply to SUEZ Communities Trust an organisation must:

1. Own or hold a lease for the project site with at least 5 years remaining. Projects should be based at a project site which must be owned or leased by the applying organisation. If the applying organisation neither owns the project site, nor has a lease with a minimum of 5 years remaining, it is not eligible to apply for SUEZ Communities Trust funding. The lease must be active before any application is made. Letters of intent or draft lease agreements are not accepted.
2. Be run on a not for profit basis. The applying organisation and the project site must be run on a not for profit basis. Not-for-profit organisations could include community groups, parish councils, charities, community interest companies, sports clubs, community associations, local authorities and voluntary organisations.

If your project site has received SUEZ Communities Trust funding within the last three years then a new application will not be considered until three years has elapsed from the date the previous funding agreement was signed.

If a stage two application has been considered by the SUEZ Communities Trust Board of Directors but not supported, applicants must wait at least 12 months before re-submitting the same (or modified) project.

To be eligible for SUEZ Communities Trust funding in England your project must be located within one of our active funding zones. A funding zone is the area around a qualifying site owned by our donor, SUEZ recycling and recovery UK. To find out if your project site is eligible please enter your postcode using the postcode checker.

To be eligible for SUEZ Communities Trust funding in Scotland your project site must be in Scotland. Additionally, if you are applying for Public Amenity, Biodiversity or Historic Building funding in Scotland you will need to establish if your project is in the vicinity of a landfill site or transfer station. To find out you can use the screening tool on the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) website.

Applicants with projects located in areas governed by Lancashire County Council are requested to direct their funding enquiries to Lancashire Environmental Fund (LEF). LEF is an entirely separate organisation that distributes the landfill tax credits raised by SUEZ recycling and recovery UK in the county.

However, we welcome applications for projects located within the unitary authorities of Blackburn and Blackpool that are within 2.5 miles of a qualifying SUEZ recycling and recovery UK waste processing site. The postcode checker will confirm if your project site is eligible.

It is important to time your application carefully so that you are able to complete the two-stage process and receive a funding decision in good time to start your project.

A stage one application can be submitted at any time. Once submitted it will be reviewed by the team at SUEZ Communities Trust and a response will be sent by email within 5 working days.
If the project appears to meet the funding criteria you will receive an email inviting you to complete and submit a stage two application form within 12 weeks. Submitting the application sooner may mean that a funding decision can be made more quickly. In the email inviting you to stage two we will estimate when you will be notified of the outcome of your funding application.

From the point that a stage two application is submitted we aim to make a funding decision within 5 to 16 weeks. The exact date you will be notified of the funding decision will depend on a number of factors including how quickly you submit your stage two application, the completeness of the application and the volume of applications already under consideration.

We recommend that you submit your stage two application at least 20 weeks before you plan to start any SUEZ Communities Trust funded work.

Applications can be started and submitted at any time – there are no application deadlines.

The online application process is in two stages.

To start an application select ‘APPLY FOR FUNDING’ above and choose the country in which the project is located.

A summary of the required information is available in the application guide.

Please click on ‘APPLY FOR FUNDING’ and select the appropriate country where you will be able to download the relevant guide.

As part of the stage 2 application form we need you to show that the costs in your budget are realistic and represent value for money. You should upload a minimum of three independent quotes for all work, services and purchases for which funding is being requested.

If for any reason you are unable to provide the necessary quotations you must contact us before submitting your application.

If the work has been competitively tendered you may provide a tender summary rather than individual quotations.

A project is more likely to be successful if it has been fully planned and any planning permission or consents are already obtained at the time you make your application. However, it is not essential to have these in place at the time you make your application.

If you have secured some funding elsewhere, particularly local fundraising, this will help strengthen your application. However, match funding or funding from other sources is not a requirement.

Don’t forget that if you are awarded funding your group/organisation must arrange a CTP payment.

The scheme is very competitive and we receive many more applications than we are able to support. For your information we can advise that, using several years’ data, applications to the Smaller Projects Fund are more likely to succeed than those to the Primary Fund. In England the success rate is 25% higher and in Scotland 50%.

We do not provide ‘up-front’ payments. Payments will only be made after the qualifying project work has been completed and acceptable evidence of expenditure has been supplied.

You can request your funding in a single payment once all work is complete. Alternatively you can make up to 5 payment requests as key stages of your project are completed. The number of payment requests are likely to depend on the terms you agree with any supplier or contractor.

Payments are made by electronic transfer into a nominated bank account. This can either be the successful applicant’s or a specified supplier’s account, providing that all supporting evidence has been submitted.

It takes 3 to 4 weeks for payments to be processed from the date you submit a satisfactory payment request.

Guidance on how to make a claim for payment will be sent to you once the project activation process is completed.