The cuts came shortly after a warning from Entrust that some landfill operators seemed to be holding back on contributions to the scheme.
Meanwhile, landfill operators themselves have warned of pressure being put on them by some local authorities to divert credits to projects “identified by the waste producer” and they have also voiced concerns about problems over money being clawed back if it is wrongly spent by an environment body. Entrust itself, facing a potential shortfall in allocations this year, is reminding landfill operators of the good deeds they can do by giving Landfill Tax money to local causes.
Successor scheme
This confused state of the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme comes as Customs wrestles with the shape of the future “successor scheme” which it has to present to ministers shortly.
The changes come about after the Treasury confirmed earlier this year that about 100 million worth of credit activity would be returned to government. The scheme, regulated by Entrust, is to continue in a changed form with about 47 million to spend on sustainable development and community projects rather than on waste and recycling work.
Entrust chairman Margaret Robinson highlighted the financial pressures on the organisation which have prompted the job cuts in an exclusive interview with letsrecycle.com. She said that the organisation’s income has been “reduced to one third, not because of anything we have done, but as a direct result of government changes. So, we have to adjust the staff numbers to an appropriate level.”
Experienced
And, the chairman emphasised that the changes – which see 19 out of 31 staff being made redundant with nine new posts created for a future staff level of 21 – “have not been made overnight or on the back of an envelope. We have extremely efficient and experienced people on our board. There are a lot of experienced business people and highly experienced HR people.”
The cuts could however leave Entrust without any of the “key” staff listed on its website and the organisation is also losing its interim chief executive Roger Hyde. He is being replaced by Dr Malcolm Cooper, who like Mr Hyde, comes from the Environment Agency.
Supervise
While Entrust will in the future have a smaller scheme to regulate it still has to supervise ongoing projects which may have some years to run, as well as projects which are still to happen through the Legacy Fund (which covers projects that had been approved before the Treasury’s decision to change the scheme). Mrs Robinson said that the new structure would be able to cope. “We have taken account of the current workload.”
But, the assurances from the chairman that Entrust will be capable of effective regulation have been questioned by some people involved with the LTCS.
One participant said: “We are moving towards the stage where the distributive environmental bodies will start acting as regulators, doing work which should properly be done by Entrust.
Another participant said they were “astounded that these changes should take place while a consultation exercise is taking place on the future of the 47 million successor scheme.”
Continued on page 2
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