Osborne reveals waste infrastructure priorities

The Chancellor also pledged to invest 5 million in a new nationwide taskforce to
target metal thieves and scrap metal dealers who illegally trade in stolen metal.

Delivering his speech to MPs in the House of Commons, Mr Osborne said: We have to help… parts of the private sectors in other parts of the country grow…So we are publishing the National Infrastructure Plan.

For the first time we are identifying over 500 infrastructure projects we want to see built over the next decade and beyond. Roads, railways, airport capacity, power stations, waste facilities, broadband networks.

The plan is broken down into sectors including transport, communications, energy and the environment, with a sub-section on waste.

For the waste sector, the government notes that its aim is to move to a zero waste economy where material is reused, recycled or recovered wherever possible, and only disposed of as a last resort.

It says that it is important to have appropriate waste reprocessing and treatment infrastructure built and operated effectively at all levels of the waste hierarchy to enable the most efficient treatment of waste and resources, as well as the best use of innovations in science and technology.

Requirements

The government says it will largely assess its progress in relation to waste infrastructure against requirements to divert biodegradable municipal waste from landfill under the 1997 Landfill Directive and under targets to recycle 50% of household waste and recover at least 70% of construction and demolition waste by 2020 under the revised Waste Framework Directive.

To help meet the Landfill Directive targets, the government says it has:

• Allocated 2 billion in Waste Infrastructure Credits (formerly PFI Credits) to 32 waste treatment and management projects, to help divert an additional 1.6 million tonnes of waste from landfill in England by 2020.
• Revised its interpretation of municipal waste in 2010 to include a much greater proportion of commercial and industrial waste collected by the private sector.
• Maintained the landfill tax escalator. The landfill tax will act as the primary disincentive to landfill. The standard rate is set at 56 per tonne in 2011-12 and will rise by 8 per annum until at least 2014-15.

To meet its targets under the revised Waste Framework Directive, it says it has:

• Identified commercial and industrial (C&I) waste as one of the priority industry sectors for investment by the Green Investment Bank (GIB)
• Set up a new WRAP loan fund of 10 million to provide debt finance to help stimulate investment in additional infrastructure to support anaerobic digestion. WRAP will also set up a new loan fund of 9 million to provide debt finance to help stimulate investment in additional infrastructure to support the recycling of mixed plastics packaging.
• Agreed a Responsibility Deal with the waste management industry which from 2014 commits industry to sharing C&I waste data with Defra, commitsto reducingthe average time taken to determine planning applications and introduce further work on development of a Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) code of practice.
• Taken steps to improve the planning system, which will reduce costs and delays for waste infrastructure projects. For large schemes, the major infrastructure planning regime is now seeing projects move through the process, with the first project given consent by the IPC being an energy from waste plant in Bedfordshire. The government is also undertaking a light touch review of the process to make the system more flexible, particularly in the pre-application phase.
• Developed a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and Planning Policy Statement 10 (PPS10), which sets out the principles for making decisions on waste planning. Thisis also being revised in line with measures to streamline planning policy.
• The government intendstoproduce a new National Waste Management Plan for England by Spring 2013, as required under the revised Waste Framework Directive. Until this time, the current Waste Management Plans, which include the National Waste Strategy as complimented by PPS10, will remain in force.
• The government intends to publish a National Policy Statement for Hazardous Waste by Summer 2012. This should remove some of the existing barriers to the development of major hazardous waste infrastructure and encourage industry to put forward development proposals for the infrastructure that is needed.

The report notes: The Government wants to move beyond the existing trajectory to deliver the vision of a zero waste economy, with emissions cut by further preventing waste arising and reducing the overall greenhouse gas impacts of waste treatment.

Economy

Also in his Autumn statement, Mr Osborne announcedanew cabinet committee on infrastructure to show how ‘decisive leadership in tackling planning and regulatory delays and addressing key commercial and policy issues, to support the delivery of the 40 infrastructure projects and programmes most critical to growth’.

TheChancelloralso announced downgraded economic growth forecasts, fallingfrom 1.7% to 0.9% for 2011, and from 2.5% to 0.7% in 2012.

Pointing to the problems in the Eurozone, he said: The Officefor Budget Responsibilityare clear that this central forecast assumes in their words the euro area finds a way through the current crisis and that policymakers eventually find a solution that delivers sovereign debt sustainability.

To help boost the economy, Mr Osborne announced measures to help small businesses, which make up the majority of companies operating in the waste industry. These included extending the business rate holiday, reducing the burden of health and safety legislation, the introduction of a 20bn national loan guarantee scheme and a 40bn “credit easing” scheme to underwrite bank loans to small businesses.

He also announced a 1bn regional growth fund for England and 250m help for energy intensive industries to alleviate the cost of EU carbon trading and other ‘green’ policies.

He said: I am worried about the combined impact of the green policies adopted not just in Britain, but also by the European Union, on some of our heavy, energy-intensive industries… So we will help them with the costs of the EU Trading Scheme and the carbon price floor, increase their climate change levy relief and reduce the impact of the Electricity Market Reforms on these businesses too.

Reaction

Initial reaction to the National InfrastructurePlancame from the Environmental Services Association (ESA), thetrade association for thewaste management industry, which said it welcomed the National Infrastructure Plan’s recogntiion of the part that new waste facillities could play in stimulating growth.

However, ESA director of policy, Matthew Farrow, saidthat recent announcements that Waste Infrastructure Credits would be withheld from Norfolk’s proposed residual waste plant (see letsrecycle.com story)only served to undermine confidence in waste infrastructure investment.

He said:ESA has previously estimated that 7.5 billion of capital investment in waste infrastructure is required to meet EU landfill diversion targets. This new infrastructure would generate 25,000 permanent new jobs and could add a fresh 2 billion to the UK’s GDP. It is time that the Government unlocked this potential.”