If the government can make a U-turn on the pasty tax it can do the same on the landfill tax, skip hire companies said today (May 29) as they threatened to bring London to a haltover the Jubilee weekend.
UPDATED: MAY 29 5pm A meeting, open to the public, about the tax changes is taking place on Thursday 31 May, from 10.30 to 12.30, in Committee Room 14 of the House of Commons. Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham has arranged the meeting. She said: We will be inviting the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Exchequer Secretary (a Treasury Minister), and their representatives.” Also invited is Ed Balls (Shadow Chancellor), and others.
The firms are writing to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for a freeze on the landfill tax trommel fines changes. If Mr Cameron fails to deliver, the firms claim they will stage a protest outside the Houses of Parliament this weekend.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Richard Hunt of the Plant and Waste Recycling Show (PAWRS), who is coordinating the letter to Mr Cameron, said: If the government can make a U-turn on the pasty tax then they can make a U-turn on the landfill tax. They have put their hands up in the past and said they have made a mistake so why cant they do the same on this?
They will have to do a U-turn on it. There are 50,000 jobs at stake here. We are talking about the whole country uniting about the fact that the government has got this severely wrong.
Mr Hunt explained that the skip hire firms main issue with the government is an alleged
lack of consultation with the industry over the sudden change to the landfill tax rates for trommel fines.
Changes
On May 18 Her Majestys Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced two changes to its landfill tax rules. Firstly, it said that fines from trommels and screens which have in the past been charged the lower landfill tax rate of 2.50 as inert material will now generally be charged the full rate of 64-a-tonne for active material. Secondly, waste or material used to cover waste in landfill cells before they are capped will also be taxed at the full rate (see letsrecycle.com story). Guidance however does exist and does explain when material can still count as inert.
Action
More than 150 skip hire companies are set to meet tomorrow (May 30) at the Holiday Inn, Heathrow to decide on the best course of action.
Mr Hunt said: There are about 150 skip operators coming to the meeting tomorrow which is near junction 4 of the M4. They are coming from all over the country. This is the first meeting and the subject is writing to David Cameron and giving him 48 hours to freeze the tax.
“If he doesnt freeze it then we are going to create a blockade outside the Houses of Parliament with over 1,000 lorries. We will also be looking to do the same thing in Manchester, Edinburgh and other cities around the country.
Mr Hunt also revealed that if this fails the firms will be looking to taking legal action in a bid to freeze the landfill tax changes. He said: We are looking to get Max Clifford and are basically looking to get a High Court injunction to freeze this tax pending a full investigation as to how there passed this action without consulting the whole country. If it fails we will take it to a judicial review.
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