The measures, unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne yesterday, will ‘severely restrict waste services to the point of stifling growth’ according to the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC).
The stark warning follows the decision to slash the central grant from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) by 56%.
LARAC has said that further cuts to waste and recycling services are becoming ’almost inevitable’, and questioned the government’s commitment to meeting the 50% recycling target which England is still failing to meet.
It argued that with five years of cuts already heaped on councils, the latest round of austerity measures would effectively stifle the introduction of new or expanded recycling services.
Waste
The organisation has called on waste businesses to engage with councils in a ‘positive manner’ if they want to see more resources recovered from households.
LARAC added that despite a CIWM Ricardo AEA report published this year showing how councils could continue to make efficiencies, no organisation can absorb cuts of these levels without considering reductions in their services.
Lee Marshall, chief executive of LARAC, said: “Given that cuts in budgets for DCLG and Defra were trailed prior to the Autumn Statement, the actual cuts come as no surprise, but that does not make them any less welcome. Local authorities have endured five years of cuts already that has seen a large reduction in central government funding for councils. The ability to squeeze even more efficiencies without reducing services is going to be extremely hard.
“The industry might have to expect minimal new services from councils unless they are prepared to invest and support local authorities. Council officers have done a great job in still increasing recycling in the face of the cuts in the last five years but there is a limit to what even their hard work can achieve.”
Treasury
The Treasury has indicated overall funding to councils is predicted to fall by just 6.7% given OBR forecasts of income raised locally, with the grant cuts offset by other perks such as authorities’ ability to retain business rates.
The cuts, while largely expected (see letsrecycle.com story), have still been criticised at a time when councils are already under considerable financial pressure.
Lord Porter, Conservative chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA), suggested that on balance, Communities Secretary Greg Clark had listened to the concerns set out by local government – but claimed the level of cuts handed down by central government was “wrong”.
He said: “Today’s Spending Review has handed down a difficult £4.1 billion funding cut over this Spending Review period for our residents and comes on top of almost £10 billion in further demand-led cost pressures facing councils by the end of the decade. The consequences for our local communities who will suffer as a result should not be underestimated.
“It is wrong that the services our local communities rely on will face deeper cuts than the rest of the public sector yet again and for local taxpayers to be left to pick up the bill for new government policies without any additional funding.”
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