The Committee was particularly concerned that at the current rate of increase, it will take nine years for the Landfill Tax to reach 35 per tonne from its current 13 level.
The Committee said: “Our concern is that such an approach – based on slow incremental change – is excessively cautious, and may not stimulate the investment and step change in behaviour that is required.”
It added: “We recommend that the Treasury increases the rate of Landfill Tax more steeply than is currently proposed, so as to reach this level in a much shorter period of time.”
The Committee also voiced its support for an incineration tax to dissuade local authorities from being pushed into incinerating material by the rise in Landfill Tax.
It said: “The Treasury’s decision to rack up the rate of Landfill Tax is likely to increase the pressure on local authorities to go for the next cheapest option – incineration – even though it is way down the Government’s waste hierarchy.”
Disappointment
The committee showed disappointment at the slow progress made by the government with regard to environmental and health evaluations of all waste management and disposal options. The report said: “Progress since the Waste Strategy appears to have been plagued by consistent delays, and it is disappointing that this further review – as necessary as it may be – will simply postpone key Government decisions further.”
Forthcoming changes to the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme came in for questioning in the Committee report. In 2002-03, the LTCS provided 147 million for investment in local projects, but this will decrease to about 47 million for 2003-04. The report questioned why it had taken so long for the government to carry out the reform after the Treasury originally started the consultation in 2000.
“Our suspicion remains that the government saw reducing the Landfill Tax Credits Scheme as a way of obtaining finance for strategic central initiatives for which it would otherwise have had to find additional funding,” the Committee said.
“We are also amazed that – after such a protracted course of deliberation and consultation – the government has not made available any information about the public spending programme which will largely replace it.”
For full copy of the committee's report, click here.
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