‘Waste charging’ to be binned
By politics.co.uk staff
The Labour’s government’s ‘bin tax’ proposals to charge those who refuse to recycle is set to be disposed of by communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles.
Instead the new government’s approach will focus on incentivising households to recycle more by giving them positive reasons to do so.
Labour’s punitive ‘pay as you throw’ approach had failed to catch on.
Its piloted proposals saw rubbish bins fitted with microchips which weighed the amount of waste generated by each household, but most councils turned their back on the idea.
Mr Pickles is expected to do the same. The Tories have argued they will cause fly-tipping, increase backyard burning and “spark a flurry of neighbourhood bin wars”.
Later this week environment secretary Caroline Spelman is expected to announce changes to planning laws which treat gardens as brownfield land, enabling them to be easily built upon.
