Environment minister Joan Ruddock and local government minister John Healey fended off suggestions from Parliament's Communities and Local Government Committee that it could be several years before any nationwide impact is seen from the five pilot incentive schemes to be run from April 2009.
Mrs Ruddock told the MPs it was “not realistic to expect a scheme to start before the financial year 2009”.
We may have an effective scheme within a year, we will have to see – but we are doing the best we can.
Joan Ruddock, Environment Minister
She said: “I much prefer confidence, decisions become much better informed with time, we really can't do it any faster. We may have an effective scheme within a year, we will have to see – but we are doing the best we can.”
The incentive scheme pilots will see five local authorities testing out reward and penalty systems tied to the Council Tax, in which those recycling less than the “norm” could pay a charge, which would be returned to those recycling more than average in the form of a rebate. This will require councils to determine what level of recycling should be considered “normal”.
But on hearing about the pilots, the select committee's chairman, Dr Phyllis Starkey, said: “The more I'm listening to this, the more I'm wondering why the government is going down this cautious route? Surely the simple thing would be for the government to just give the powers to local authorities to do pilots – and then 1,000 flowers would bloom, instead of this incredibly slow procedure of waiting until 2009 and then waiting to measure the results of the pilots.
“It would decrease waste, it would cut costs and however things turn out, it would be without government taking credit or blame,” added the MP for Milton Keynes South West.
MP for Sheffield Attcliffe Clive Betts pointed out that recycling was important in the fight against climate change, and added his own concern that the incentive schemes could take “six or seven years” to take any effect nationally.
John Healey said measures like the rising Landfill Tax, the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme and capital investments including the Private Finance Initiative system would drive up recycling rates until incentive schemes become established. He suggested that therefore, the MPs' views were “not an entirely fair criticism”.
“If we're doing all this, why, then, do we need incentive schemes at all?” Mr Betts then asked.
Mrs Ruddock explained: “We are making progress. But as progress continues it becomes more and more difficult to increase recycling, it gets more difficult as time passes.”
The Committee hearing last night, which was looking into local government finance on waste, following on from the committee's report on waste collection (see letsrecycle.com story), MPs were told about the forthcoming increase in PFI spending on new waste infrastructure, the rising Landfill Tax and local authority funding following this year's central government Spending Review.
But it was Defra's intention to look at incentive systems for household waste recycling that bore the brunt of the committee's questioning.
As well as a debate over whether the system would be, technically or aesthetically, a “tax” – “definitely not”, according to Mrs Ruddock – the MPs were keen to find out how schemes would be evaluated, and how they would impact on the vulnerable members of society and those on benefits who do not pay Council Tax.
Mrs Ruddock said that these would be matters for the local authorities running the pilots to work out. “We would need to look at those with less scope to reduce their residual waste – people on benefit would not be in that category, because they can reduce their waste, they could participate. We would need to design a scheme that would look at where these people can benefit from an incentive,” she said.
The minister added that those who are recognized as having genuine difficulties in recycling – such as the disabled – would have to be taken into account by any schemes put forward by local authorities.
Dr John Pugh, the Liberal Democrat MP for Southport, grilled the ministers on the financial side of the incentive schemes, concerned that the schemes might prove too costly for councils once the pilots were over, and government will no longer provide set-up costs.
Mrs Ruddock responded suggesting that the extra recycling inspired by the incentives would save councils around £18 per household in waste collection and disposal costs each year, and that incentive schemes would become “revenue neutral” within a few years of starting up.
The pilot schemes, she explained, would give councils across the country the confidence that those savings would be achieved by incentive systems. However, the minister noted that on incentive schemes, “the scale of the incentive doesn't have to be based on the savings achieved”.
Councils will not be able to make a profit out of incentive schemes. “The local authority will collect monies from those who recycle least and provide a rebate to those who recycle most,” Mrs Ruddock said.
With MPs discussing whether householders will accept penalties for failing to recycle enough waste, Mrs Ruddock suggested: “It is possible to have reward-only schemes, but the council that chooses to do a reward-only scheme would have to work out how to raise the money.”
Register for free to comment