Newspapers roundly rubbish PIU charging proposals

Many of the national papers accused the government of planning a 'stealth' tax which would hit high waste producers such as families particularly hard.

The reactions came after yesterday's news that the Performance and Innovation Unit has considered charging householders if they produce more than two bags of rubbish per week. The Unit's report is likely to suggest one option of charging 1 per extra bag or 5 per month for households regularly producing too much waste.

In an editorial headlined &#39A; Rubbish Idea' The Times predicted that people would dump their extra rubbish bags in their neighbours' gardens and asked how such charges would be levied in practice: “Would the very poor have to pay the charges? If not, would they have to fill out a means-test form? What about blocks of flats? How would anyone know which rubbish came from whom?”

And in a play on the PIU's remit of “thinking the unthinkable” the paper said it had instead been told to “think the unworkable”.

Stealth
The Daily Mail slammed the proposal to charge 1 per excess sack of rubbish. “This is despite the fact that householders already pay for rubbish collections as part of their council charges,” it said. The paper added that UK council tax bills have soared by 8% this year and warned that any additional stealth charges were likely to anger taxpayers.

The Daily Express agreed, saying a “double dollop of tax” would lead to fly-tipping, overfilled bin bags and even health hazards caused by people burying or burning waste. And it too predicted problems with enforcement, which it envisaged generating mountains of bureaucracy while the bin men themselves collected the charge.

After the news this week that the Royal Mail will charge 14 to deliver letters before 9pm, The Sun was resigned to “a long list of charges for services which should already have been met out of income tax, National Insurance or council levies.”

Discussing the “barmy plan” alongside London congestion charges, tuition fees and plans to charge NHS patients for non-medical services such as meals, it accused the government of failing to make the system more efficient and merely thinking up new ways of raising taxes.

Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith was widely quoted saying: “People shouldn't have to pay twice just because the Government has not a clue how to reform public services. The public deserve a lot better.”

Recyclables
But only The Guardian and The Independent noted that the proposals would apply to unsorted waste – from which recyclables had been removed.

“A report is likely to include proposals such as free collection of bottles, cans and paper, part of efforts to meet European targets for cutting the amount of waste dumped in landfill sites,” said the Independent.

The Guardian reported quotes from political leaders as well as Dirk Hazell, chief executive of the Environmental Services Association.

Mr Hazell said that the cost of disposing household waste needed to rise from 50p to 1 per person per week and those who threw the waste away – the householders – should pay for it.

Michael Meacher was reported as saying yesterday: “Charging people would provide a useful extra incentive to reduce and recycle waste. The important thing first is to make sure that everyone has the facilities to compost and recycle. Already they can take unwanted items to the civic amenity tip, but they need facilities at the kerbside and we want every council to do that.”