The event was also used as the platform for two ministerial announcements. One is consultation on the 140 million to be allocated to local authorities for recycling development over the next two financial years. The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is thought to accept that the money may not be available in April next year because projects will have to be assessed, but funds will certainly be available to be spent during the next financial year.
The second announcement is that there will be a review of what is carefully described as the government's “strategy for waste”. Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett side-stepped any talk of a review of the Waste Strategy 2000 produced by her department. Instead the review will be carried out by PIU which is linked to the Cabinet Office.
Describing the discussions at the Summit about recycling targets, Mrs Beckett said: “We have made a lot of improvements from where we were a few years ago, but I think that there was general recognition that we have a long way to go.
“We are setting a new PIU review on this subject for which I will be the sponsoring minister. I will try to make sure we get where we need to be in dealing with waste issues.”
The PIU review will be completed by next summer. But, an urgent preliminary report is to produced by January and this will be fed into the Treasury which is considering the level of the Landfill Tax after 2004. Several delegates to the event raised the importance of increasing the tax.
On Energy From Waste, Environment Minister Michael Meacher said the discussions on this were a matter for local authorities.
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