The environment minister said that any decision on the LTCS will come after the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit publishes its waste review later this month. However, he did indicate that the government has some clear concerns with the system in its current form.
Speaking at the 2002 Biffaward Awards at Regent's College, London, he said: “There has been significant criticism of the scheme – not least from Parliament and the Public Accounts Committee report, looking at issues of accountability, monitoring of the scheme, Entrust and whether the scheme is providing value for money.”
Mr Meacher admitted that with the scheme cutting across Departmental boundaries and involving partnership working, it was difficult to achieve the kind of transparency that was needed. However, he revealed that pressure from the Treasury over the issue is mounting.
“Since landfill tax credits were introduced in 1996,” he said, “400m has gone to environmental bodies – 109m in 2001 alone. However, there are no arrangements for evaluating the success of individual projects or the scheme overall. As I'm sure you can understand, the Treasury is concerned about this and wants regular evaluation of the scheme.”
He added: “This is taxpayers' money ultimately – albeit indirectly – and it does need to be accounted for.”
Waste projects
Mr Meacher explained that the government is looking over the consultation held earlier this year and that responses it received clearly pointed in the direction of more funds going to sustainable waste management projects rather than other environmental concerns.
- Click here to read the summary of responses to the government's LTCS consultation.
In the Chancellor's Budget in April 2002, Gordon Brown stated that the government had set targets such that 65% of LTCS funding should go to waste management projects. However, Michael Meacher made it clear today that the current system does not see enough money going towards boosting recycling.
“Despite the changes made by Entrust,” he said, “there remain concerns about the waste industry having too much influence – particularly that there is no incentive to fund schemes putting money into recycling – though there have been recycling projects benefiting from landfill credits, there's no particular incentive to do that.”
Mr Meacher added: “There's also concern whether Entrust has the powers to regulate properly.”
The 2002 Biffaward Awards was hosted by the Royal Society for Nature Conservation (RSNC). It recognised the work of environmental groups funded through Biffaward landfill tax credits. Environment minister Michael Meacher presented the award to the overall winner, the National Urban Forestry Unit's Urban Forests scheme.
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