Clause 6 - Borrowing and banking of landfill allowances
Waste and Emissions Trading Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Mr Jonathan Sayeed (Mid Bedfordshire, Conservative)
The concepts in the amendments are ones that I brought up on Second Reading, and I know that they were mentioned by the hon. Member for Lewes in his speech. The amendments would remove the power to borrow and bank allowances.
As the Bill stands, a waste disposal authority could borrow additional capacity to landfill from the landfill allowances of subsequent years, except target years. That may mean that decisions and investment in technologies necessary to enable the UK to comply with the landfill directive are deferred. Even with statutory recycling targets, if municipal waste continues to grow at 3 per cent. per annum, a waste disposal authority could, by borrowing allowances from subsequent years, feasibly landfill in 2008 quantities of biodegradable municipal waste similar to those that it landfilled in 2003.
Perversely, borrowing could significantly reduce the incentive for local authorities to trade. I therefore ask the Minister to respond the argument that the banking of permits may act as a disincentive for waste disposal authorities to improve continuously, year on year, and to invest in the required new and long-term infrastructure. We do not want to build into the Bill a culture of disincentives and short-termism.