The admission came in what was a Black Monday for the Minister who had come under heavy criticism earlier in the day for his department's proposals for composting of kitchen and catering waste.
A storm over the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme (LTCS) changes blew up at a meeting of the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group in Westminster last night where Mr Meacher had expected to speak about hazardous waste. Instead he found himself “ambushed” by an audience which vociferously attacked the government over the decision announced last week to end the waste management and recycling element of the scheme from April 2003.
While many of those present had a vested interest in the scheme continuing in its present form, the strength of feeling appeared to take the Minister by surprise.
The questioning was started by John Dutton, chief executive and managing director of the Staffordshire Environmental Fund who also chairs the Association of Distributive Environmental Bodies which represents the organisations that have sprung up to distribute Landfill Tax Credits.
Levered in
Mr Dutton said that four to 10 times the value of the LTCS funds for a project could be levered in from European funds and other sources because the LTCS money counted as private sector funding. He went on to ask the minister whether sustainable waste management research and development projects would be included under the Landfill Tax Credit funding that would now go to straight to sustainable waste management through the public purse, claiming: “civil servants can't answer these questions.”
Mr Meacher said that the way the 47 million – which is the portion of the LTCS remaining in the current system – will be spent has not yet been decided. “A ministerial committee will be looking at some of the financial implications. This is one of the early issues that we shall look at.”
Barry Sheerman MP, who was chairing the meeting, said that the loss of the 100 million also meant that about 300 million in match funding had been lost. “Most people in the room will be depressed by the announcement,” he said.
Mr Meacher replied saying that there were several reasons for the changes. “There have been frequent allegations of dodginess – that some of the money has been used for wrong purposes. This whiff of scandal was unhelpful.” And, the minister emphasised that not enough of the money was going to the weakest part of recycling, namely the collection infrastructure, saying: “Our concern is to build up the infrastructure on the ground.”
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