MPs question bin scheme benefits

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Ministers were accused of bowing to criticism and resorting to a "messy compromise" on plans to introduce financial incentives for recycling.

Moves to give councils the power to levy charges on households that create the most waste were announced while Tony Blair was prime minister early last year.

After Gordon Brown took over, the scheme was downgraded to being piloted by five local authorities, with the prospect of an England-wide roll-out set back until 2012/13.

The cross-party Communities and Local Government Select Committee described the changes as "a comprehensive retreat".

Having previously warned that financial incentives would result in public protests and an increase in fly-tipping, it said it was still not convinced the idea would work well across the country.

The committee said the Government lacked the "courage of its previous convictions" and had acknowledged the reluctance of councils to take up the scheme in its decision to carry out "a mere five" pilots.

It said there was already a wide range of experience to be drawn on from European neighbours and doubted whether a small number of trials in this country would be especially helpful.

It added: "We do not believe that allowing only five of England's waste collection authorities to introduce schemes, covering four different collection methods, in a mixture of rural and urban settings, and across the whole country, will provide significant additional evidence on which to judge whether all authorities should be able to offer such schemes."

The committee said the Government's stated hope that the scheme could assist councils in meeting obligations under the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme appeared to have been abandoned.