In this section: Every tax
Landfill Tax
Last updated . Figures refresh every night. How each figure is worked out.
A tax per tonne of waste sent to landfill, charged on the operator of the site. Landfill operators, who pass it to councils and businesses disposing of waste. It reaches households through council tax and through the price of goods. It raised £623m in 2025–26, which is 0.1% of everything HMRC collects and 0.02% of the economy. That is up £137m (28.2%) on the year before.
Figures for the 2025–26 financial year. Source: HM Revenue and Customs.
Key figures
- £623mRaised in 2025–26 up on a year earlier: +£137m (+28.2%) vs 2024–25
- 0.02%Of the whole economy (GDP) unchanged on a year earlier: no change vs 2024–25
- -63%In real terms, against the 2013–14 peak Adjusted for inflation with the GDP deflator
Sources: HM Revenue and Customs, HM Treasury.
What is the short version?
- How big: £623m in 2025–26, 0.1% of everything HMRC collects; after inflation, 51% less than in 2015–16.
- Latest change, 2018: The tax is extended to illegal disposals, to stop operators escaping by fly-tipping.
- Where it goes: The Landfill Communities Fund, in part.
- The argument: Landfill imposes real costs: methane, leachate and lost land; against that, high rates encourage fly-tipping and waste crime.
How much does it raise?
The numbers behind this chart
| Financial year | Cash | Real, 2025-26 prices |
|---|---|---|
2006–07Details for 2006–07 | £804m | £1,316m |
| ||
2007–08Details for 2007–08 | £877m | £1,408m |
| ||
2008–09Details for 2008–09 | £954m | £1,477m |
| ||
2009–10Details for 2009–10 | £842m | £1,287m |
| ||
2010–11Details for 2010–11 | £1,065m | £1,600m |
| ||
2011–12Details for 2011–12 | £1,090m | £1,604m |
| ||
2012–13Details for 2012–13 | £1,092m | £1,579m |
| ||
2013–14Details for 2013–14 | £1,189m | £1,684m |
| ||
2014–15Details for 2014–15 | £1,144m | £1,598m |
| ||
2015–16Details for 2015–16 | £919m | £1,275m |
| ||
2016–17Details for 2016–17 | £874m | £1,189m |
| ||
2017–18Details for 2017–18 | £757m | £1,017m |
| ||
2018–19Details for 2018–19 | £683m | £897m |
| ||
2019–20Details for 2019–20 | £641m | £820m |
| ||
2020–21Details for 2020–21 | £566m | £688m |
| ||
2021–22Details for 2021–22 | £667m | £809m |
| ||
2022–23Details for 2022–23 | £626m | £709m |
| ||
2023–24Details for 2023–24 | £489m | £526m |
| ||
2024–25Details for 2024–25 | £486m | £503m |
| ||
2025–26Details for 2025–26 | £623m | £623m |
| ||
Figures for the 2025–26 financial year. Source: HM Revenue and Customs, HM Treasury.
How "real terms" is worked out
Real terms use HM Treasury's GDP deflator, rebased to 2025-26 prices. That is the measure the Treasury and the OBR use for public finances; the consumer price index is the right one for a shopping basket, not for the size of the state.
How does it work?
Landfill tax is charged per tonne, at a standard rate for most waste and a much lower rate for inert material like soil and rubble.
It was designed to make landfill the most expensive way to deal with waste, so that recycling, composting and energy-from-waste became cheaper by comparison. A landfill tax escalator raised the rate steeply year after year to force that gap open.
It worked, and the receipts show it. The amount of waste going to landfill has fallen dramatically, and the tax now raises a fraction of what it once did in real terms. That is the policy succeeding.
How has it changed?
How it got here, and why each change was made:
- 1996Introduced as the UK’s first explicitly environmental tax.
- 2008An escalator begins, raising the standard rate by £8 a tonne each year to make landfill clearly the dearest option.
- 2015Scotland introduces Scottish Landfill Tax; Wales follows with Landfill Disposals Tax in 2018.
- 2018The tax is extended to illegal disposals, to stop operators escaping by fly-tipping.
Where does the money go?
The Landfill Communities Fund, in part. Operators can divert a small percentage of their liability to environmental projects near landfill sites through the Landfill Communities Fund, and get credit against the tax. It is a genuine, if small, hypothecation. The rest is not earmarked.
Because it is not earmarked, the only honest way to show what it pays for is by proportion. If landfill tax receipts of £623m were spent in the same proportions as all public spending in 2025-26, they would break down like this. It is an illustration of scale, not a statement about where those particular pounds went.
See for every £100 of tax for the full picture.
Does it change what people do?
Alongside tobacco, the clearest case on this site of a tax shrinking its own base on purpose. Landfill volumes have collapsed since the escalator began and receipts have fallen with them. Nobody regards this as a failure.
When a tax rise stops raising money looks at the cases where the effect has been large enough to move the revenue.
What are the arguments?
The case for it
- Landfill imposes real costs: methane, leachate and lost land.
- It measurably shifted waste to recycling and recovery.
- The lower rate for inert waste avoids penalising construction unnecessarily.
- Falling receipts mean it is working.
The case against
- High rates encourage fly-tipping and waste crime.
- Councils pay it and recover it through council tax, so households pay without seeing it.
- It pushed waste towards incineration, which has its own emissions.
- Some exported waste simply becomes another country’s problem.
Both columns are set out as their strongest case, not as a preferred answer and a strawman. See how this site handles contested questions.
Common questions
- What is landfill tax and why is it falling?
- A tax per tonne of waste sent to landfill, charged on the operator of the site. Landfill operators, who pass it to councils and businesses disposing of waste. It reaches households through council tax and through the price of goods.
- How much does landfill tax raise?
- £623m in 2025–26, which is 0.1% of everything HMRC collects.
- Where does landfill tax go?
- The Landfill Communities Fund, in part. Operators can divert a small percentage of their liability to environmental projects near landfill sites through the Landfill Communities Fund, and get credit against the tax. It is a genuine, if small, hypothecation. The rest is not earmarked.
Use this data
The figures belong to the bodies that published them and are used under their terms, listed in Sources for this page; most are Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence. Only our own words, analysis, charts and derived calculations are ours, published under CC BY 4.0: reuse them, including commercially, if you credit Tekstak Ltd and link back to this page.
Download
- Landfill Tax receipts by financial year (CSV) JSON HM Revenue and Customs: Open Government Licence v3.0
- Total HMRC receipts by financial year (CSV) JSON HM Revenue and Customs: Open Government Licence v3.0
- All data, field definitions and licences
Embed the live figure
Paste this into your page. It updates itself every night and links back here.
Sources for this page
| Source | Publisher | Figures as of | Updated | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK | HM Revenue and Customs | the 2025–26 financial year | annual | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
| GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP | HM Treasury | the 2025–26 financial year | annual | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
Each source's figures are used under the licence shown. Our own words, analysis, charts and derived calculations are ours, under CC BY 4.0.