A man’s freedom to fill up his quarry absent extortion must stand, writes Charlie Amos in response to Labour’s expanded landfill tax which will add £25,000 to the cost of building a house

A key target for this Labour government is building 300,000 homes every year; yet last year, only 217,911 homes were built. It is very strange then Labour wishes to introduce a quarry tax as of next year, which, on average, would add £25,000 to the cost of building a new house. It seems this government is more focused on pointless green targets to get us to a ‘circular economy’ than cheaply housing people. Plus, taxing people to simply fill in their own holes in the ground is a gross violation of private property which has no place in a free society.

As of 2027, the government intends to extend the scope of the landfill tax to include inert waste materials being used to fill in quarried land. Along with standardising the rate of the landfill tax from 2030, this means for each tonne of clay, chalk and soil put into an old quarry, businesses will have to pay at least £126.15 instead of the current rate of £4.05. Now if you dig up your garden in order to get the potatoes you planted earlier in the........

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