Councils welcome PFI funding boost

However, there is some trepidation over whether this funding route is the best way of meeting landfill diversion targets and whether the measure could put pressure on councils to choose PFI to gain funding.

Responding to the publication of the Comprehensive Spending Review yesterday (see letsrecycle.com story), which sets down the financial framework for councils over the next three years, many local authorities commended the promise of £2 billion to help them meet challenging European targets to divert waste from landfill.

In particular, the government has pledged to increase its investment in waste management facilities through Private Finance Initiative (PFI) from £280 million in 2007/08 to £700 million in 2010-11. 

In Cambridgeshire, the council's waste policy manager Mark Shelton said that any increase in funding for waste treatment facilities was positive, as councils needed to build thousands more plants to divert waste from landfill. The council has recently secured £35 million worth of PFI credits for a long-term waste contract with Donarbon.

He said: “Any money for this kind of infrastructure is good news as we need a whole lot more to meet our landfill directive targets and they need to be paid for somehow.”

Adrian Poller, director of the Shropshire waste partnership – which has just signed a PFI contract with Veolia (see letsrecycle.com story) added that the PFI boost would give councils more confidence in delivering new facilities.

He said: “Other local authorities will see other funding routes as more attractive but if you have got a project that fits PFI, then the more funding you have available for that, the more confident you are going to be that you can deliver it.”

Questions

Some questions, however, have emerged over whether more PFI funding could cause some additional delays to the procurement of waste management contracts – which are already subject to public consultations and arduous planning processes.

Alice Roberts, policy consultant at Local Government Association, told letsrecycle.com: “A large amount of money through PFI is potentially good but there are caveats. The first is the delay PFI can cause and I also want to know what implications there are for council choice.”

Mo Baines, who is principal advisor for the Association for Public Service Excellence, which works with councils across the UK to help deliver frontline services, added that more funding options needed to be available to councils to give them a choice in financing waste facilities.

She said: “We welcome the extra funding but we feel a more direct borrowing route should have been an option for the government to consider.”