Rubbish taxes won't work and must be binned, say MPs

Pay-as-you-throw rubbish taxes will not work, MPs said yesterday.

They called on ministers to halt a pilot scheme for bin taxes in five towns and districts.

Rubbish taxes won support in Whitehall last year, after public opposition put a halt to the expansion of fortnightly collections and compulsory recycling.

Instead, ministers styled pay-asyouthrow taxes as "incentives".

It is hoped the schemes will help councils meet EU targets for reducing waste sent to landfill.

Ministers say those who do not recycle enough would end up paying £30 a year under the scheme.

However, most analysts believe the tax would actually amount to at least £100.

The report from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee - which is looking into rubbish collections - said families who are asked to pay extra for waste collection will object, because they believe they have already paid for the service through council tax.

Meanwhile, MPs are unconvinced that the taxes would work.

They will be unfair, the committee said, because householders who recycle in areas that have the schemes could be eligible for council tax rebates.

But these are not available to those in towns without the schemes.

And those who live in areas where rubbish is taxed, but do not recycle, will fare worse than those who do not live in bin tax zones.

Furthermore, the pilot schemes will be too late to prove whether bin taxes can work before EU landfill penalties have to be paid in 2010, the MPs said.

This, together with public hostility, to the proposal, means that ministers have achieved "the worst of both worlds".

Waste Minister Joan Ruddock was condemned in the report. She had assured one committee meeting that charges were "definitely not a tax".

She then corrected herself, saying: "Technically, these charges are considered by the Treasury as being a form of tax."

MPs said: "It is a matter of considerable concern that the minister in charge of the financial incentive pilots appears not to know whether the charges she intends to introduce are or are not a tax."

Ministers should allow councils to decide whether to bring in pay-as-you-throw taxes, the committee said.

Paul Bettison, Tory council leader of Bracknell Forest and environment chief at the Local Government Association,was also rebuked.

The MPs noted that Mr Bettison is "the public face of the LGA's longstanding campaign in favour of charging".

But Mr Bettison told MPs he would not charge for rubbish collections in his authority, if given the option, the report said.

It added: "Almost all the local authorities we heard from supported in principle the idea of charging schemes, but were reluctant to charge their own residents."'

The LGA reiterated its demand for bin taxes to go ahead yesterday.

Mr Bettison said: "There will be parts of the country where financial incentive schemes are not appropriate, and the final decision must be made by local councils."

Tory communities spokesman Eric Pickles said: "Week by week, Gordon Brown's plans for bin taxes, like so many other policies, suffer new blows to their credibility."

A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which is organising the pilot schemes, said: "The Government is committed to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill and it is important that local authorities have the tools to enable them to motivate residents to cut their waste.

"Piloting is a sensible and responsible way to find out how incentive schemes work in practice."