Defra committed to publish waste review in May

Defra has stressed it is committed to publishing the results of its review of England's waste policy in May 2011, with ministers expected to consider a draft version of the document over the Christmas break.

But, speaking at the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association's national conference yesterday (December 15), DECC minister Lord Marland revealed that the timetable for publishing the levels of a new government subsidy which is expected to support the take-up of AD, the Renewable Heat Incentive, had slipped into the New Year.

Outlining progress on the waste policy review, Defra waste programme manager Andrew Gregory said the department was “committed” to complete work on the document emerging from the process by April and to publish it in May, after the local government elections scheduled for May 5.

“We will meet that timetable – I don't think there's any room for slipping,” he stressed.

He added: “I have spent the last two weeks head down trying to get a draft document in ministers' inbox before Christmas.

And, he said the next step for the process would mean that “in the New Year we want to come back to stakeholders and start feeding back some policy ideas that are emerging. In January, February and March we'll start to pick up engagement with the public.”

Policy proposals

Outlining policy proposals which were emerging from the review, Mr Jackson said they currently involved:

• removing barriers to councils dealing with SME waste;
• potentially introducing a voluntary responsibility deal for the hospitality sector;
• working with local authorities to respond to the needs of householders;
• a new approach to enforcement of legislation – more risk based;
• positioning AD clearly within the full energy from waste “story”;
• the Treasury's commitment to green the tax system, which may include waste.

Mr Jackson explained that, while most of the detail would be contained in the single review document, there was the potential for a separate document dealing with AD and energy from waste.

And, he noted: “The document will be as complete as it can be by May but I don't think we're going to have all the policy and actions nailed down by then.”

RHI

In terms of the Renewable Heat Incentive, Lord Marland commented on the government's previous assertion that the level of the subsidy available to technologies would be published this year, before the June 2011 introduction of the RHI itself.

“I am pretty much certain it won't be announced before the end of the year because the huge amount of work we have got on is unbelievable to be frank,” he said.

Outlining the size of the task, he explained: “We inherited a situation where for the last 13 years there hasn't been very much investment in our energy needs. There's a massive infrastructure problem which requires £150 billion of investment in the next 10 to 15 years. “

But, he stressed that the government remained committed to bringing the RHI itself in by June 2011 and said: “We have had the odd thing that has slipped but we are working flat out to get there and I don't see June, at this point, slipping.”

The levels of support given to AD by the incentive are seen as crucial in helping the sector to secure investment, with ADBA previously calling for a premium for the technology to encourage plants to come on line early (see letsrecycle.com story).