After last week's polls, the Government has proceeded to treat local government with its customary contempt by reneging on the so-called bin tax, even though the five pilots have already been announced.
This reaction to last week's dismal results for Labour is out of short-term panic, not long-term strategy.
The three-year trials are being funded by the Government through DEFRA, following their announcement in the Climate Change Bill, and £4.4m of taxpayers' money has already been allocated for the programme.
This so-called tax was always going to be problematic but is, nonetheless, part of a wider move to reduce landfill waste by capping the amount householders can throw out, free of charge, as part of their normal waste collection.
Government ministers, of course, are well aware of the rationale behind the ‘bin tax', or to be more accurate, the additional charge on waste. They are a response to the huge EU fines local authorities face for not meeting landfill reductions by 2010. In 1996, the tax was £7 a tonne. Currently, the landfill tax is £24 per tonne. By 2009/10, it will be £40. If councils fail to meet these targets, they face hundreds of millions in fines which will come out of services or be added on to council tax.
It is likely most people are unaware of these looming charges, but they are part of the otherwise laudable aim of reducing our rubbish flow. The public have shown they are prepared to do their bit for the environment, such as reject the supermarkets' obsession with plastic bags, if only the arguments are clearly outlined. In the case of domestic rubbish, the days of landfilling are over. We must produce less waste and recycle and incinerate more. The alternative is to put up council tax. There is no easy answer and the Opposition is misleading the public to suggest there is.
We expect governments, therefore, to provide leadership on these difficult issues, explaining to the electorate the rationale for the strategy to reduce waste. Instead, Gordon Brown, spooked by the polls and the effect of declining incomes on voters, is offering only short-term political expediency.
Michael Burton
Editor, The MJ
