The Waste and Resources Action Programme's budget from Defra will be cut by 27.9% in 2011/12, the department revealed today (December 20), in a move which is expected to impact severely on the resource efficiency body's work with businesses and local authorities.
As part of its attempt to save £661 million between 2011/12 and 2014/15 under the government's Spending Review, Defra will reduce WRAP's budget for administration and programme costs from £48.1 million in the current financial year to £34.7 million in 2011/12.
Today's announcement does not detail exactly how much WRAP's capital budget – the money it can spend on supporting new facilities, for example – will be reduced by, but WRAP also confirmed that it's capital works funding, which totalled £7.4 million in 2010/11, would also be completely cut.
Ahead of the publication of its 2011-14 business plan, WRAP has said it expects to become more dependent on its partner organisations and councils – as well as focusing more on business waste, product design and water and reducing its communications work (see letsrecycle.com story).
And, with its director for local government services, Phillip Ward, set to retire in March 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story), there is speculation that it could reposition itself away from supporting local authorities to the extent it currently does.
Environment Agency
As part of the arm's length bodies allocation announced today, Defra also revealed a 6% cut in the budget it makes available to the Environment Agency for its work in areas other than flood management – therefore including its waste regulatory activities.
The Agency will have a £187.9 million resource budget in 2011/12, compared to £199.9 million in 2010/11, with further cuts to £182.1 million – a 3.1% hit – in 2012/13, to £173.3 million – a 4.8% cut in 2013/14 and to £167 million, down 3.6%, in 2014/15.
With Defra itself expecting to achieve a £174 million reduction in its administration costs during the four year Spending Review period, the department has already acknowledged that thousands of jobs across the Defra network could be lost (see letsrecycle.com story).
WRAP
Reacting to today's announcement, WRAP said the level set by Defra was “in line” with its expectations, and confirmed the capital grant funding cut.
WRAP's capital funding from Defra for 2010/11 of £7.4 million was composed of a year-on-year £3 million grant, a one-off £4.4 million grant for Anaerobic Digestion. It also received £2.1 million from the Aggregates Sustainable Levy Fund and, while the AD and year-on-year grants have been abolished, £1.6 million of its core revenue funding will be intended to mitigate this.
Commenting on the capital cuts, a spokeswoman for WRAP said: “We've still got our AD programme happening but the impact of the axing of the capital is going to be most felt in organics.”
But, it stressed that it also receives “significant funding” from the Welsh Assembly Government, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Assembly and was yet to find out how much it is receiving from the devolved administrations.
Liz Goodwin, WRAP chief executive, said “We are pulling together an ambitious business plan for the next four years – we're confident it will be sufficiently resourced by our four key funders to deliver the necessary impacts to help the UK become more resource efficient.”
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