07.05.08
The department for the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) has insisted that the government is to carry on with pilot financial incentive schemes for recycling – despite recent reports they may be scrapped.
Defra spokeswoman said “We will evaluate the impact of the pilots before making a final decision whether other local authorities can introduce similar schemes.
The comments were made in reaction to the Bank holiday Monday papers reporting Gordon Brown was to squash moves in the climate change bill to let councils charge households for how much they throw out.
The claim was Joan Ruddock Minister for climate change 15 th November 2007 claimed “ For the first time authorities will be able to both positively reward those who recycle and those who do not.”
So has this rubbish tax been binned or not ? When this statement was made Joan Ruddock was adament the plans were to go ahead but national Newspaper headlines over the Bank holiday weekend claims otherwise.
Gordon Brown said “ I will bin the rubbish tax” so are these schemes to be scrapped after Mr Brown made a popularist U-turn?
Council leaders echoed the reports and were not as confident as Defra that it would ever go ahead.
Councillor Paul Bettison, Chairman of the local government Association’s environment board, said. “ This must be making him ( Gordon Brown) dizzy. It is the third U-turn he has carried out on these financial incentives. Millions of pounds have been set aside to pay for councils carrying out these pilots, and that will be wasted.”
Mr. Bettison insisted the scheme has support from waste minister Joan Ruddock and environment minister Hilary Benn.
The concept of a bin-tax has been floating about for years. A leaked document from Whitehall in 2004 showed that the government were considering a £1-£5 a month tax for over bulging bins.
In this secret document the Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett admitted “ I accept there will be potential political risks.” It appears Mr. Brown shares her concerns.
In August 2007 a government –commissioned survey appeared claiming that most people would support a pay as you throw charge to have their rubbish taken away. More than half questioned said they would back a scheme to penalise households that threw out most rubbish and rewarded those who recycled the most according to the poll for Defra. Critics questioned the data but it appeared everything until this point ( Including the necessary PR) was in place to introduce the bin tax.
But then last September these plans were kicked over as it appeared Labour members were firmly against the idea of extra charges for rubbish collection. It began emerging, though never directly that Mr.Brown was firmly against the idea. The closest any newspaper came from quoting him directly was The Times who claimed they were quoting from the source “ A messege from Dowing street that they( Defra’s bin tax plans) should not proceed.”
So what about today after the new bin tax claims? A call to Defra was met with the reply in short -_ It’s business as usual. The government are now denying claims it has been scrapped and Mr. Brown has never directly said if the tax is in or out – But whether this bin tax will pass while Brown is in power remains to be seen.
