on biodiversity, flooding management and damage to property. It is an offence under section 14(2) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to "plant or otherwise cause to grow in the wild" any plant listed in Schedule nine, Part II to the Act, which includes Japanese knotweed. As of 2014, householders and landlords within towns, who do not control the plant in their gardens, can receive an on-the-spot fine or be prosecuted. It is also classed as "controlled waste" in Britain under part 2 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This requires disposal at licensed landfill sites. Some home owners in the United Kingdom are unable to sell their homes if there is any evidence of knotweed on the property. The species is expensive to remove. According to the UK government, the cost of controlling knotweed had hit £1.25 billion in 2014. It cost £70 million to eradicate knotweed from 10 acres of the London 2012 Olympic Games velodrome and aquatic centre. Defra's Review of Non-native Species Policy states that a national eradication programme would be prohibitively expensive at £1.56 billion. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has been using citizen science to develop a system that gives a knotweed risk rating throughout Britain. The decision was taken on 9 March 2010 in the UK to release into the wild a Japanese psyllid insect, Aphalara itadori. Its diet is highly specific to Japanese knotweed and shows good potential for its control. Controlled release trials began in South Wales in 2016. In Scotland, the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 came into force in July 2012 that superseded the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This act states that is an offence to spread intentionally or unintentionally Japanese knotweed (or other non-native invasive species). In Northern Ireland it has been recorded from Counties Down, Antrim and Londonderry. The earliest record is in 1872. In the Republic of Ireland, it has been recorded from Howth Head, Co. Dublin at Doldrum Bay. Lending controversy In the United Kingdom, Japanese knotweed has received a lot of attention in the press as a result of very restrictive lending policies by banks and other mortgage companies. Several lenders have refused mortgage applications on the basis of the plant being discovered in the garden or neighbouring gardens. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors published a report in 2012 in response to lenders refusing to lend "despite [knotweed]