The Churches’ Legislation Advisory Service has recently issued the following reminder about about exemption from charging for the collection of waste from churches and situations where the exemption might not apply, as follows.
Paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Controlled Waste Regulations 2012 classifies waste from a hereditament or premises exempt from local non-domestic rating by virtue of, in England and Wales, paragraph 11 of Schedule 5 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 as household waste. In practice, this means waste from places of religious worship is regarded as domestic waste and authorities with waste collection duties must collect it and may not charge for its collection or disposal. Under paragraph 11(1) and (2) of Schedule 5 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988, that provision also applies to buildings used in connection with the conduct of public religious worship – such as an office or church hall.
However, if a church hires out such buildings to other groups not connected with the conduct of religious worship, that would be regarded as a commercial activity and any waste arising from such use would be commercial waste – for which a charge for both collection and disposal can be made.
A further consideration would be where the waste arises from a building or renovation project, for which private waste collection arrangements would generally be necessary. The Diocese of London notes that the waste generated by a single extension or reordering project ‘could likely exceed all the other waste from the same church for a period of years’ – and reminds churches contemplating major projects that the likely cost should be taken into account at the project planning stage.