The board said that, as all public bodies were looking to make savings in the current economic climate, it has agreed with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to a reduced contribution for this round of funding.
This means that Defra will provide £48.9 million of funding for the board for the three years until 2010/11, £11.1 million less than the £60 million originally planned. The remaining £24 million of LWaRB funding comes from the London Development Agency.
The board will receive an extra £0.5 million from the liquidation proceeds of London Waste Action, a public-private partnership set up in 2007 to promote sustainable waste management . This brings the body’s total funding pot, which was originally £84 million, to £73.4 million.
LWaRB’s Business Plan for 2010/11, launched in April (see letsrecycle.com story), set out the allocation of funds to support a range of technologies that aim to divert around a million tonnes of London’s waste from landfill and help address the predicted capacity gap outlined in the Mayor’s draft Municipal Waste Management Strategy.
LWaRB said it would continue to focus on investing in waste infrastructure as a priority for its current funding round.
However, in response to the agreed funding reduction, LWaRB altered the allocation of its funds and has amended its business plan, resulting in some projects having their LWaRB contribution reduced:
- In December 2009 LWaRB agreed to provide £12 million of support towards an £80 million gasifier in East London, to be delivered by Biossence (see letsrecycle.com story). This funding has now been reduced by £3.1 million to bring LWaRB’s funding contribution to £8.9 million. LWaRB said the project’s delivery remains fully on track and the funding is now in line with its targets.
- LWaRB’s contribution to the ‘Recycle for London’ campaign (see letsrecycle.com story) will now be £5 million rather than £6.5 million, which will focus on regional level communications. Local authorities can bid for support from Recycle for London to communicate recycling, reuse and waste reduction messages to residents in their borough, including projects delivered through LWaRB’s Flats Recycling Programme.
- LWARB announced £8 million of funding to the London Community Resource Network to set up a reuse network across London in July (see letsrecycle.com story). LWaRB said it remained committed to the project, with £4 million available from the current £73.4 million fund to kick-start the network and the remaining £4 million to follow through future cash flows to LWaRB.
The remaining amount affected by this change was unallocated and does not therefore impact on any existing projects, the LWaRB said.
James Cleverly, chair of the London Waste and Recycling Board, said: “With LWaRB’s current funding shrinking by £10.6 million, we will continue to focus on our efforts on delivering those waste infrastructure projects that will help to close the projected capacity gap in London and deliver the most ‘bang for their buck’.
“We have revised our allocation of funding but our aim to deliver real, on the ground improvements to London’s recycling and waste management remains crystal clear, with no change to our strategic focus or service offerings for this financial year.’
Defra said it remained committed to LWaRB and its objectives and was supportive of an application for a second round of funding by the board. The result of this application should be announced by the government as part of a wider spending review in October 2010.
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