By Mark Howarth, Scottish Mail on Sunday
Updated June 29, 2024 17:59, June 29, 2024 18:00
- Terry Wogan, Phil Collins and Cliff Richards are among those who have used the system as a tax break to save fortunes.
- Scientists say the effort has disturbed ancient peat bogs in northern Scotland, releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Experts claim that a scheme allowing celebrities and other investors to receive tax benefits for planting trees has contributed to the release of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
TV presenter Terry Wogan and pop stars Phil Collins and Cliff Richard are among those who have saved big money by planting conifers on peat bogs they bought in the far north of Scotland.
But the UK government's plans would destroy ancient bogs in Caithness and Sutherland's Flow Country, which have trapped carbon for millennia.
Scientists now calculate that the project, which ran through the 1980s and finished in 1993, likely contributed to climate change by releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases.
The research, which has yet to be peer reviewed, was carried out by expert Tom Sloane from the University of Leeds in collaboration with the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, York, the University of the Highlands and Islands and the Midlothian-based Forestry Research Institute.
Comparing soil samples from eight farms in Flow Country, the scientists estimated a net loss of carbon in six sites and a net gain in two.
“In the UK, tax incentives have encouraged the rapid and large-scale afforestation of deep, normally treeless peatlands that are economically unattractive for forestry and have not typically been commercially planted,” the researchers say.
The tax break was introduced by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government to encourage reforestation and job creation in rural areas.
This law allowed taxpayers subject to the highest withholding tax rate, then 60 percent, to claim capital allowances for forestation and to obtain subsidies.
They would then sell the mature forests onto government land, pocketing the tax-free profits.
One of the areas used is Flow Country, a vast area of intact peatland thought to store 400 million tonnes of carbon. One sixth of the land, or 172,000 acres, has been drained and reforested.
World snooker champions Steve Davis and Alex Higgins also invested. Michael Forsyth, an MP who later became Scotland Secretary, complained in the House of Commons in 1987 that his party's policies had unintentionally created “a new generation and class of absentee landlords made of pop stars”. [and] Snooker player.
The incentives were scrapped after the National Audit Office questioned whether taxpayers were getting value for their money.
Terry Wogan invested £115,000 in the scheme in 1985, purchasing 1,430 acres of peatland in Flow Country.
He sold the three estates ten years later, making a profit of around £57,000, and it was only on this transaction that he had to pay tax.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh recently published a report on Scottish forestry policy, calling for a review of subsidies.
Professor Ian Wall, chairman of the inquiry, said: “Afforestation in Flow Country was the result of landowners rushing to secure significant tax benefits, which has clearly damaged the area's biodiversity and, as this study shows, led to a net increase in atmospheric carbon.”
“We need to remove and restore deep peat woodland in Flow Country and elsewhere.”
The Scottish Forestry Agency said modern plantations are “carefully and thoroughly assessed in the light of strict environmental regulations”.
