Welsh Ministers have set Landfill Disposals Tax rates for disposals made on or after 1 April 2026: £130.75 per tonne at the standard rate, £8.65 at the lower rate and £196.15 for unauthorised disposals. Mark Drakeford MS confirmed the regulations were made on 5 December and laid on 9 December, with Senedd approval scheduled for Tuesday 20 January 2026.

Compared with 2025–26, that is a £4.60 rise at the standard rate, a £2.35 rise at the lower rate and a £6.90 rise for unauthorised disposals. Current Welsh rates until 31 March 2026 are £126.15, £6.30 and £189.25 per tonne respectively. Our take: modest per‑tonne moves add up quickly on high-volume contracts, with the lower-rate jump material in percentage terms.

LDT is charged by weight and paid by landfill operators, who typically pass it through in gate fees. For budgeting, remember that the tax sits on top of haulage and site charges, and VAT may apply to the overall service. Pricing changes therefore filter straight into waste invoices for businesses across construction, retail and local government.

For Welsh councils, even small increases matter. A local authority sending 20,000 tonnes of mixed municipal waste to landfill in 2026–27 would face around £92,000 in additional LDT versus 2025–26, before any changes to gate fees. That is a clean arithmetic effect of the £4.60 uplift at the standard rate multiplied by expected tonnage.

Construction firms should rebase skip and muck-away budgets early. A mid-sized contractor disposing of 2,500 tonnes of mixed waste would see roughly £11,500 more in LDT for 2026–27. Loads that drift from qualifying inert material into mixed waste can multiply tax costs, so tighter segregation and weighbridge checks are worth the time.

Large retailers and logistics centres also feel the change. A distribution hub disposing of 300 tonnes of residual waste in a year would pay about £1,380 extra in LDT at the new standard rate. Contract variations that fix gate fees but pass through tax should be reviewed to avoid margin surprises in Q2 2026.

Where a load qualifies for the lower rate, the cash rise is smaller per tonne but still noticeable. A quarry or civils operator disposing of 5,000 tonnes of qualifying inert material would add about £11,750 to the annual tax bill at the £8.65 rate. The practical hedge is documentation and contamination control so that qualifying loads stay within the rules.

The unauthorised disposals rate remains a clear deterrent. At £196.15 per tonne from April, a 1,000‑tonne illicit dump would trigger a £196,150 tax liability before any separate penalties or cleanup costs. In Wales this rate is set at 150% of the standard rate to discourage waste crime, so compliance and audit trails are commercially essential.

What to do now is straightforward: refresh 2026–27 budgets using site‑by‑site tonnage forecasts; reprice waste contracts that pass through tax; tighten waste segregation to protect access to the lower rate; and brief site managers so that classification errors don’t erode project margins from April.

One final note for operators on both sides of the border: these changes apply in Wales under Landfill Disposals Tax. Outside Wales, Landfill Tax applies and rates may differ. LDT replaced Landfill Tax in Wales in April 2018, so keep systems and contracts clear on jurisdiction to avoid misbilling.