Contaminated land assessments

Our team of experts are here to help you to understand, manage and reduce geoenvironmental risks in land transactions and development.

Environmental due diligence - Our technical expertise and commercially focused approach to contaminated land assessment can identify solutions to manage and reduce liabilities to help achieve maximum value.

Geoenvironmental consultancy - Through desk and site investigations, our geoenvironmental experts and qualified ecologists ensure these risks associated with your development are effectively identified and expertly managed to meet your planning requirements.

Environmental risk management - We help site operators understand the environmental risks on their sites to ensure your operations remain compliant and you can take action where non-compliance exists.

Contaminated land can present numerous commercial, technical, and legal challenges, which generate uncertainty, cost, and delay when land is being bought, sold, or redeveloped.

The key to the successful completion of any contaminated land development project comes from straightforward, concise, and timely advice which quantifies risks and delivers value.

Contact our experts

Get in touch today to discuss a personalised consultation.

Simply send us your details or call 0800 592 827.

How we can help

We help investors, owners, operators and developers to understand, manage and reduce their geotechnical and environmental risks in relation to land transactions, development and site operation where there may be contaminated land or geoenvironmental risk.

By combining technical expertise and a commercially focused approach, we find solutions to manage and reduce risk, so that you can achieve your business and sustainability goals.

What is contaminated land?

Land contamination is a term used to describe the impact to soil and water from historical human activity. Contamination is caused by a variety of past uses including industrial use, disposal of waste materials and the import of material to raise ground levels. In some cases, contamination of soils can occur due to naturally occurring compounds such as metals.

There are laws and regulations that require land contamination risks to be assessed, managed and remediated. This can present numerous commercial, technical, and legal challenges all of which generate uncertainty leading to higher costs and delays when land is being bought, sold, or redeveloped.

We strongly believe that the key to managing land affected by contamination comes from straightforward, concise, and timely advice which quantifies risks and unlocks asset value.

When do you need to do it?

Land contamination risks should be managed when conducting land transactions or development and as part of operational risk management and compliance.

Transactions

Environmental due diligence is an essential part of any transaction involving contaminated land as it highlights potential liabilities and costs associated with environmental risks.

We carry out specialist environmental due diligence surveys on sites as part of acquisition or divestment to provide estimates for potential environmental liabilities associated with land contamination and areas of regulatory non-compliance.

Environmental due diligence is required to:

Limit environmental liabilities and associated costs.
Provide a competitive advantage by fully identifying risk to understand legal liability cost and timescales.
Protect corporate brand and reputation.
Provide opportunities to enhance value and maximise the return on capital.
Provide details to reduce future environmental liabilities.

Our due diligence services include:

Phase 1 and Phase 2 environmental assessments.
Provision of initial advice and environmental reviews.
Data room assessments and peer review of reports.
An assessment of risks and provision of financial budgets to cover liabilities.
Risk ranking of property portfolios to highlight aspects that could materially impact the transaction.
Completion of baseline and lease closure assessments.
Provision of practical remediation appraisal and advice, where necessary.
Regulatory discussions and agreements where necessary.
Project management and cost control of third-party environmental works.
Post transaction advice.

Redevelopment

We help anyone looking to develop their land, as well as construction partners, to reduce delays and unknown geoenvironmental risks.

We do this by combining technical expertise and a commercially focused approach to find solutions so that you can focus on delivering an effective and high-quality development.

We understand the planning process with associated building control requirements and the guiding principles under Land Contamination Risk Management (LCRM). Combined with our significant experience of managing the environmental requirements of contaminated land development projects ensures we meet and even exceed the National Planning Policy Framework definition of a competent person.

Our land development services include:

Full end-to-end geoenvironmental assessment capability, including production of Phase 1 desk studies, Phase 2 site investigations, detailed risk assessment, waste classification assessment, and remediation design, delivery and validation.
Capability to provide civil engineering and waste management services.
Preliminary Ecological Appraisals and related surveys and mitigation.
Experts in environmental management for construction projects.

Environmental risk management

Our environmental risk audit will help you understand and manage your sites’ environmental risks and suggest strategies to reduce them. Our qualitative risk assessment is combined with a quantitative risk matrix to help you prioritise your planned preventive maintenance strategy or remediation works.

Features and outputs:

A fully trained and impartial consultant on-site.
A detailed, bespoke environmental risk audit report including desk research, on-site audit and flood assessment.
A full and comprehensive set of recommendations and remediation actions.
Access to our specialist products, engineers, and consultants.
For multiple site operators, the results can be included within a bespoke risk model to allow a comparison of risk across your portfolio.

Why choose Adler & Allan

Trusted partners

We are a trusted source of knowledge, support and solutions by developers, construction companies and design team members.

Know-how

Our experts have advised and supported hundreds of land development projects across the UK and Ireland, many of which had complex issues which represented major barriers. This means we understand the actual risks and not just theory.

Agility

We understand that no two projects or clients are the same, and that each project needs to be delivered in a way to meet its specific requirements.

Strong relationships

Extensive experience of providing environmental due diligence services and strong relationships with many of the major independent UK fuel oil providers.

Experience

Carried out assessments on hundreds of fuel oil depots, terminals, and petrol filling stations as well as other commercial and industrial sites.

Responsive

We are frequently asked to perform environmental due diligence surveys and submit reports with very tight deadlines usually at the very final stage of a major acquisition.

Contaminated land management