Schedule 5
Climate Change Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Gregory Barker (Shadow Minister, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Bexhill and Battle, Conservative)
From the council tax. If somebody produces less waste and instead produces recyclates, which have an economic value, that should generate income. Currently, we have a standard tariff for council tax. Encouraging more people to recycle will result in over-achievement of targets. It should be revenue-positive.
It is a different sort of cash planning that assumes all the differentials and incorporates into forward revenue planning and penalties for non-recyclables. We think that that is the wrong way to go. If more people recycle and reduce their waste, that will in itself create surplus value, which should be retained. We should not create surplus value by penalising and fining people at this stage. If we are to get people into the recycling habit, we should be talking about carrots, not sticks.
As I have said, the Government’s approach is a good way to turn people off doing the right thing. The cost of living has already risen dramatically in the past year, so we must be careful that the measures are not seen as another way for this Government to extract money from the public, as they have done in so many other matters.