The Environmental Act 1995 introduced a new statutory regime (the "Part IIA Regime") for the inspection, identification and remediation of contaminated land. Although the Part IIA Regime has yet to be implemented, subject to Parliamentary time constraints, implementation is likely in the first 6 months of the year 2000.
Although there has been considerable debate as to the Part IIA Regime for lenders it has tended to concentrate on whether lenders could be liable for clean up costs on premises they had security over. What has not been much debated is the priority position a lender’s security may have if the local authority incurs clean up costs.
The Part IIA Regime (section 78N) sets out when a local authority or other enforcement authority may enter premises or land to carry out remediation works, however, the likely situation is where the authority has issued a remediation notice which the owner of the property has failed to comply with and immediate action is necessary.
