Clause 4 - Allocation of landfill allowances
Waste and Emissions Trading Bill [Lords]
3:30 pm
Mr John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
I want to amplify the arguments of the hon. Members for Lewes and for Stroud (Mr. Drew) and to reaffirm those made by my hon. Friend the Member for Leominster (Mr. Wiggin) when he introduced the amendments.
The key point is recognition of the fact that there is great variability in waste culture both between and within local authorities. A county council in a two-tier situation may be good at its job, but some or all of its district councils may not be so good at their jobs. That is a fact of life: it is not a party issue, but is about all parties and none. However, in those circumstances, and where the relationships are not right and proper, it would be difficult to meet targets for which a high level of co-operation is required.
The point made by the hon. Member for Stroud should be emphasised. He said that it is not just that such authorities will not be efficient, but that they may not yet have taken their responsibilities seriously. They may not yet have woken up to the necessity of putting together a coherent plan. I need to be convinced that sufficient discussion is taking place between the relevant authorities in all parts of the country. That will certainly happen in some places where strong relationships already exist. Those areas will have got ahead of the game and will already be having the right sort of discussions in anticipation of the targets and the Bill. However, in many parts of the country that will not be the case.
That issue must be viewed against the background of the variable needs and qualities of different parts of the country. Some areas have a proliferation of a particular type of waste—commercial and industrial waste, for example—whereas other areas have dense populations. My area is sparsely populated and that creates a different kind of problem in terms of waste collection, the distribution of resources and the provision of a public service to a sparse community. There is enormous variation in the means and needs of different areas and that will have an impact on the ability of different areas to meet the targets. To enable them to do so, we must include in the Bill an impetus for the relevant authorities to work together. My hon. Friend the Member for Leominster sought to do that in proposing the amendments.
I will be interested to hear from the Minister his assessment of how far we have gone in encouraging local authorities to operate in that way and what his
model would be for encouraging them to do so in areas where they are not.