22 February 2008
Government plans to pilot refuse collection charging schemes are a 'messy compromise', according to a highly critical report.
The report, Refuse collection: waste reduction pilots, published by the Commons communities and local government select committee on February 21, slammed the government for its 'lack of courage' to let local authorities decide on how rubbish is collected in their area.
Chair Phyllis Starkey said: 'In our earlier report, we criticised the government for making a half-hearted tilt in the direction of charging householders directly for the collection of their rubbish. It has since, in the face of highly negative media coverage, mounted a wholehearted retreat from even the limited policy outlined last May.'
The committee concluded that the five council pilot schemes given the go-ahead will fail to provide enough evidence to judge whether all authorities should be able to offer refuse charging schemes.
It also criticises the timescale for the introduction of the schemes, none of which will start until April 2009. They would have 'no discernible effect on local authorities' ability to meet European Union landfill targets before penalties are due'.
It adds that it 'remains to be convinced that incentive, or charging, schemes, either as currently conceived or as outlined in the [government] Waste Strategy, would work well in England'.
The report calls on the government to reconsider devolving the power to introduce the charging schemes to local authorities rather than taking forward proposals for pilot schemes in the forthcoming Climate Change Bill.
The Local Government Association warned that council taxpayers will be hit with a £1.5bn bill in the next three years unless money raised through landfill tax is reinvested in refuse and recycling facilities.
Currently local authorities have to pay £32 in tax for every tonne of rubbish that is sent to landfill, which will rise to £48 by 2010. From 2010 councils will also have to pay £150 in EU fines for every tonne of rubbish they dump.
Paul Bettison, chair of the LGA's Environment Board, said: 'Landfill tax is designed to encourage people to throw away less, but at the moment it's unfairly penalising hard-pressed councils that need the money to build recycling plants.'
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