Clause 9 - Duty not to exceed allowances
Waste and Emissions Trading Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Michael Meacher (Minister of State (the Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham West and Royton, Labour)
Let me answer the first intervention, if I may. My hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Mr. Kidney) is right to say that more money will be coming into the system. There is a further source of substantial funding that I did not mention earlier, as I referred to it in discussions on another clause, and that is the hypothecation of the landfill tax escalator increase over and above the current level, which will reach £15 in 2004. The Chancellor has already said that he will raise it to £35 with a minimum increase each year of £3, and he may decide to make it more. That is a further £20. The extra amount, if it is hypothecated when it goes to local authorities, will be very substantial indeed. It will be several hundred million pounds, and it may approach £1 billion.
My hon. Friend also mentioned the landfill tax credit scheme. If a grant has already been made or was successfully applied for before 31 March of this year, it can be spent in the current transitional year, which extends to 3 April 2004. We are still discussing how the sustainable waste management public expenditure would operate. There is probably an extra £100 million in the system, and local authorities would benefit from a considerable amount of that. However, the exact arrangements have not yet been finalised.