The Conservative Party has confirmed that it will put a floor under 2013 levels of Landfill Tax until 2020 if it comes to power next year.

Under Conservative Party proposals the rate of Landfill Tax would not fall below £72 per tonne from 2013 to 2020

Outlining a number of green economic proposals at Imperial College London today (November 24), Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said that, if elected, his party would ensure Landfill Tax would be kept at a minimum of £72 per tonne for waste material for the next ten years.

This policy was first discussed at Green Alliance event in June last year (see letsrecycle.com story) and is likely to be welcomed by waste and recycling firms who have previously called for more long-term certainty on the rate to help make long-term investments (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Osborne said: "On Sunday, David Cameron announced that a newly elected Conservative government would hold a Budget within 50 days of coming to office. I can today tell you that if win the election, in that very first Budget I will put a floor under the announced 2013 levels of Landfill Tax until 2020."

Mr Osborne said the measure would equate to "the most-long term tax commitment ever by a Chancellor" and said the assurance would send a "powerful message" to councils that recycling was "the right way to go".

RecycleBank

Also at the event, Mr Osborne took the opportunity to praise the "fantastic results" seen by UK trials of the American rewards-based recycling scheme RecycleBank - which is currently being trialled in the Conservative controlled Royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (see letsrecycle.com story).

The RecycleBank model, which sees residents given reward vouchers for national and local retailers based on the volume of material they recycle at the kerbside, has also be championed by other leading Conservative politicians - such as David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson and shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert.

As Mr Osborne indicated in his speech, householders can earn up to £130 a year in discounts and vounchers through the RecycleBank scheme.

He said: "In a speech last year, I suggested we should try the [RecycleBank] approach in the UK. But I didn't just make the statement and leave things there. After the speech, my office got in touch with RecycleBank [and] we put them in contact with Windsor and Maidenhead council, and worked closely with them to get a pilot off the ground."

Mr Osborne said pointed to the fact that over half of all eligible residents had signed up to the RecycleBank trial and claimed "recycling rates have increased by an incredible 30%".

Since the launch of the trial in Windsor and Maidenhead, other councils have expressed an interest in using the incentive scheme (see letsrecycle.com story) but, as yet, Halton borough council in Cheshire, which is Labour-controlled, is the only other local authority to introduce a trial of the system (see letsrecycle.com story).

"Greenwash"

Responding to the comments made by Mr Osborne, energy minister Ed Miliband dismissed the Conservative Party sentiments on the deployment of RecycleBank, and wider proposals referring to energy generation and job creation, as "greenwash".

He said: "This so-called greening of the Treasury involves no new money. The truth is the Tories have opposed Labour's extra public investment including the £400 million allocated at the time of the budget for new green industries."

"Why should anyone believe a piece of greenwash from George Osborne?"

Mr Osbourne's proposals were also criticised by Renew, a body designed to promote the extraction of value from waste in the North East.

Although the organisation welcomed the thrust of his speech, John Barton, director of Renew, pointed to the fact that household waste only comprises a small proportion of overall waste arisings in the UK.

Mr Barton said: "Popular pledges like [George] Osborne's divert attention from managing all sources of waste effectively. This government and those of the future need to spend more time tackling the knotty, difficult problems of waste arising from other sectors."