What steps his Department is taking to develop a national waste management strategy.

We published the 2007 waste strategy for England on 24 May. Progress remains very much on course, as is shown by continued reductions in levels of household waste—a subject that we have just discussed—and an increase in levels of household recycling.

I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. The emphasis in my question is on the word "national". I think that everybody agrees that recycling, composting and making waste into energy are good things, but on numerous occasions—and twice in very recent history—massive local campaigns have been mounted against a composting plant or gasification unit. The decision has to be taken by the local authority, which will also take the hit for it. Is there some way in which decisions about where such units go could be made nationally, so that we could all take a part in that recycling, composting and gasification?

Some aspects of waste recycling are controversial. Often, the controversy is based on misunderstood information and fears that are not well founded. The Waste and Resources Action Programme offers advice and help, and DEFRA is developing programmes of support for local authorities. The Local Government Association is asking for further detail and guidance on how local campaigns can be clear and reassuring, and can provide good, solid, well-founded information to local communities who might have concerns about a particular technology. There is no doubt that there have been massive improvements in the type of gasification technology that my hon. Friend describes, for example, which causes alarm. People can be reassured that it is good, clean, technology.

The Minister told me this week that in all but two English regions, landfill capacity would run out in less than seven years' time. We urgently need a better strategy to increase recycling rates further and develop markets to use waste as a resource for materials and energy in particular. Last month, however, the National Audit Office said that DEFRA had responded too slowly to the landfill directive, with the result that waste infrastructure projects were being delayed. Can the Minister explain why a Department that is meant to be leading on environmental protection takes years to act?

As I said earlier, the recycling rate in England was 7.5 per cent. in 1997 and is now 34.5 per cent. A huge amount of work has been done. We expect the combined impact of our policies in the waste strategy that I described earlier to be a reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions of at least 9.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2020 as a result of waste management. What would be the impact on targets of that nature of the cuts that the hon. Gentleman would be forced to make in any departmental programme of this kind? When in government one makes decisions that have a big impact, and the decisions that we have made have brought about a sea change in household attitudes to recycling.

Is it not the case that the heart of a national waste management strategy should be the principle that the polluter pays? Does the Minister share my concern about the fact that more local authorities have not shown interest in differential charging for domestic waste? Is it not common sense that the filthiest households should pay more, and what further steps can the Government take to increase local authorities' understanding of the importance of the "polluter pays" principle?

I do not necessarily agree with my hon. Friend. Some of the poorest households find waste management the most difficult, often because the circumstances in which they live are so difficult. I think that we should work harder to understand how we can help households in such circumstances to do better. One possibility is a punitive approach, but I want to study the situation with some of those local authorities, which may be struggling. We know that it is particularly hard to deal with houses in multiple occupation containing lots of families. I want to understand what the barriers are, and how we can reduce them to help local authorities perform better and improve the environments of some of the poorest people in the country by enabling better recycling techniques to be used.