WRAP to benefit from changes to the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme

As part of the government's pre-budget report, the Treasury made it clear last week that community projects will only be able to apply for a third of the money that comes from the tax paid on waste going to landfill. The rest would be handed out by the government to improve sustainable waste management.

Although details of the changes to the LTCS will only be announced in the budget in April 2003, letsrecycle.com has learned that WRAP is likely to benefit from a large proportion of the funds set aside for sustainable waste management.

WRAP
The government is understood to be very keen on WRAP doing more to improve markets for recycled materials, and it also sees a real importance in promoting waste minimisation. Some of the money from the Landfill Tax is likely to go to some kind of waste minimisation campaign – possibly a national campaign along the lines of the 'rethink rubbish' project.

Speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group, environment minister Michael Meacher pointed out that WRAP should also be doing more to focus on waste minimisation as an issue. He said: “WRAP has made a very good start but it clearly needs to boost its work in minimisation.”

Critics
More money will be coming out of the Landfill Tax once the government has consulted on final details to raise the price escalator to 3 per tonne each year from 2005. But there had been a lot of support for the LTCS as it stood, and critics have said that with two-thirds of the funds now being handed out by government, local areas will not necessarily benefit from the money generated by material landfilled nearby.

Speaking at a wood waste conference organised by Flora and Fauna International yesterday, DEFRA's Brigid Preston explained: “Although 80% of those we consulted wanted to stick with the current system, the government felt there was too much potential for conflicts of interest and fraud. Also, the waste industry had a huge influence in how the money was spent and there wasn't sufficient evaluation of the success of the system.”

Details
Ms Preston, who works in DEFRA's Waste Strategy Division, told delegates that the government will release details of its Landfill Tax increase and changes to the LTCS in the April budget next year as well as any other changes suggested by the Strategy Unit's waste review.

“The Strategy Unit report has not yet been accepted as policy,” she said. “What the government will take from it will be announced about the time of the budget, but the government does recognise the need to change. It also recognises that there really needs to be quite a significant increase in funding, because landfill is so cheap.”

Ms Preston went on to say that the government also recognises the “importance of expanding WRAP”, and that since the UK's waste generation is increasing, whatever action is taken is likely to cost more.