Mr Morley was speaking in the same week that the Liberal Democrats said they would give local authorities the power to charge householders for the waste they produce (see letsrecycle.com story).
” There is a possibility in the long term restructuring so that Council Tax goes down overall but charges are placed on the weight of waste produced by households.“
– Environment minister Elliot MorleyThe minister said he wanted to avoid “rushing into anything”, but said that he would like to invite local authorities to trial variable charging schemes of various kinds in the near future.
He said: “I would like to invite local authorities who might like to pilot a scheme. Some of these incentive schemes are already being run by local authorities on the continent. Not forcing councils to run them, but I think it should be available for them to try.
“What we are considering is having the powers to have a range of schemes on a voluntary basis and ask local authorities if they would like to trial them.”
Mr Morley said he was following the progress of some councils that are already attempting to incentivise the process of recycling through mechanisms like prize draws. He stressed that he particularly wanted to see schemes using incentives to reward householders' recycling, “but it doesn't have to be a 'stealth tax' on bins as has been reported in certain newspapers”.
He said: “There is a possibility in the long term restructuring so that Council Tax goes down overall but charges are placed on the weight of waste produced by households. But rather than rush into anything, we would like to encourage local authorities to trial schemes.”
Defra has been looking into the possibility of household incentives since a recommendation was made to do so by the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit in November 2002. A spokesperson confirmed the Department is still “reviewing its position” but that “nothing has been ruled in and nothing has been ruled out”.
Industry
The issue of household waste charging was also discussed at a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrats Party Conference in Bournemouth this week, supported by the Environmental Services Association.
Waste industry representatives argued that variable charging could be too complicated to bring in, but that what it would like to see is a system of direct, transparent waste charging in the same way that other utilities like water or electricity use bills to charge householders.
The industry belief is that if charges are put up because not enough recycling is taking place, householders will see that it is specifically their waste bill going up, rather than increase being hidden among other factors leading to Council Tax rises.
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