{"id":1846,"date":"2025-09-19T13:56:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T13:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leyton.majjane.agency\/uk\/insights\/articles\/court-of-appeal-confirms-pre-construction-development-costs-can-qualify-for-capital-allowances\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T16:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T14:24:08","slug":"court-of-appeal-confirms-pre-construction-development-costs-can-qualify-for-capital-allowances","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leyton.com\/uk\/insights\/articles\/court-of-appeal-confirms-pre-construction-development-costs-can-qualify-for-capital-allowances\/","title":{"rendered":"Court of Appeal confirms pre-construction development costs can qualify for Capital Allowances"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"1846\" class=\"elementor elementor-1846\" data-elementor-post-type=\"article\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-25114452 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"25114452\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-66afe4bc elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"66afe4bc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A recent Court of Appeal decision in <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/653b74d1d10f3500139a6a5f\/Gunfleets_Sands_Limited_and_others_v_HMRC_final_decision.pdf\">Orsted West of Duddon Sands (UK) Ltd and others v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 279<\/a> provided clarity on the <a href=\"https:\/\/majjane.leyton.com\/uk\/capital-allowances\/\">Capital Allowances<\/a> treatment of pre-construction development costs, such as environmental assessments and engineering studies involved in developing offshore windfarms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The appellant companies were members of the same corporate group headed by Orsted. The Court of Appeal ruled that a majority of the appellants\u2019 pre-construction development costs (totalling around \u00a348m) did qualify under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/ukpga\/2001\/2\/contents\">Capital Allowances Act 2001<\/a>, which includes expenditure \u2018<em>on the provision of plant and machinery\u2019<\/em>. The qualifying expenditure includes the costs of design, installation, as well as costs for studies in relation to the development, provided that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The plant or machinery to which the expenditure relates was actually acquired or constructed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The expenditure did not arise from characteristics or circumstances particular to the specific taxpayer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Court held that expenditure carried out as part of environmental impact, technical\/engineering studies (e.g. on wind, ocean and seabed conditions), and the cost of project management when setting up the windfarms was qualifying expenditure for the purposes of claiming Capital Allowances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The decision provides welcome clarification and confirmation of the law regarding what pre-construction costs can qualify for tax relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Leyton can help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the rules around eligible expenditure for <a href=\"https:\/\/majjane.leyton.com\/uk\/capital-allowances\/\">Capital Allowances<\/a> may seem daunting, our specialist team of experts can provide advice and support to ensure you&#8217;re making the most of the tax relief available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re here to help you save time and effort while maximising your claim. Our deep understanding of both Court of Appeal case law and HMRC rules will give you peace of mind that every asset eligible for tax relief has been identified \u2013 even for the most complex of construction projects. We\u2019ll do all the hard work, liaising with your team to create a robust and compliant claim while giving clear guidance on the most tax-efficient approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have a project you\u2019d like to discuss, please feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/majjane.leyton.com\/uk\/contact-us\/\">get in touch<\/a> with our team to find out how we can help you to maximise your savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>If you enjoyed this article, you might also like:<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-leyton-orion-block-list list-block undefined\"><div class=\"container\"><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"col\"><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/majjane.leyton.com\/uk\/insights\/articles\/our-guide-to-capital-allowances\/\"><em>Our guide to Capital Allowances<\/em><\/a><\/li><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/majjane.leyton.com\/uk\/white-papers\/the-complete-guide-to-rd-tax-credits-2025-edition\/\">The complete guide to R&amp;D Tax Credits<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent Court of Appeal decision in Orsted West of Duddon Sands (UK) Ltd and others v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 279 provided clarity on the Capital Allowances treatment of pre-construction development costs, such as environmental assessments and engineering studies involved in developing offshore windfarms. The appellant companies were members of the same corporate group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":1923,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,110],"tags":[611],"expertise":[470],"class_list":["post-1846","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capital-allowances","category-construction","tag-construction","expertise-capital-allowances"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.1 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Court of Appeal confirms pre-construction development costs can qualify for Capital Allowances - Leyton United Kingdom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leyton.com\/uk\/insights\/articles\/court-of-appeal-confirms-pre-construction-development-costs-can-qualify-for-capital-allowances\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court of Appeal confirms pre-construction development costs can qualify for Capital Allowances\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent Court of Appeal decision in Orsted West of Duddon Sands (UK) Ltd and others v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 279 provided clarity on the Capital Allowances treatment of pre-construction development costs, such as environmental assessments and engineering studies involved in developing offshore windfarms. 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