Clause 18
Finance Bill
12:15 pm
Angela Eagle (Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury; Wallasey, Labour)
I think that there is now cross-party agreement that increasing recycling, including putting in the infrastructure that is needed to do that, and thereby landfilling less waste, is a wholly good thing. Clearly, the landfill tax is one of the ways in which we have begun to make real progress; it is an important part of the Government’s efforts to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. There are obviously, as the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Fulham hinted, overarching EU directives in this area, and we have signed up to targets that we wish to reach. He is also right to say that having a landfill tax helps to drive investment in alternative greener technologies, which further reduce methane emissions from landfill waste. As I am sure the Committee knows, methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, and it is really important that we reduce those emissions.
Evidence shows, I am happy to say, that the tax has been successful in reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. Figures show that between 1997 and 2008, the volume of waste disposed to landfill fell by 32 per cent., delivering carbon savings of 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2010. In Budget 2007 the Chancellor announced that the standard rate, which applies to active waste sent to landfill, would increase by £8 per year until 2010-11. Clause 18 gives effect to the 2007 announcement by increasing the standard rate of landfill tax to £48 per tonne, with effect from 1 April 2010.
The increase is part of the Government’s effort to reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill, and is complemented by public spending on sustainable waste management. For example, we announced £10 million of new grants for businesses in 2009-10 to provide capacity to divert more than 300,000 tonnes of waste from landfill and reduce waste disposal costs through, for example, anaerobic digestion. At the Budget this year, we announced that the standard rate for landfill tax would continue to increase by £8 per tonne for a further three years, from 2011 to 2013. That is designed to encourage investment in alternatives to landfill. We will legislate for those increases in future Finance Bills, as we have done for all previous landfill tax increases.