Central government is to consult landfill site operators, environmental bodies and their regulating body ENTRUST on how the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) can be improved to better support communities, it has been announced.
HM Treasury yesterday (8 September) announced that it will consider new options to improve the LCF and ‘ensure it reaches the communities and projects it is designed to support’.
Set up alongside the Landfill Tax in 1996, the LCF enables landfill site operators to claim a credit against their landfill tax liability for voluntary contributions made directly to environmental bodies. Environmental bodies then use these contributions to fund projects to improve communities, such as by improving public amenities and conserving nature habitats. To date, the LCF has raised £1.2 billion for community projects.
However, central government has been challenging environmental bodies to make better use of their funds, after it was found that some had ‘accumulated large amounts of unspent money’, which was ‘not reaching communities as quickly as it should’.
As such, government told environmental bodies to reduce the amount of unspent funds by 15 per cent by April 2012, which was extended to 25 per cent by April 2014. However, HM Treasury revealed yesterday that, overall, environmental bodies only reduced unspent funds by 17 per cent by the April 2014 deadline.
To counter this, the government is now consulting on ‘different options’ to improve the flow of funding to communities. (Despite this, in the Budget 2014, the UK government decided to reduce the value of the LCF for 2014-15 to £71 million and, as a result, cap contributions by landfill operators to 5.1 per cent to take into account the ‘progress that environmental bodies have made to address the government’s challenge to reduce unspent funds’. The saving is being used to fund a £5-million crackdown on waste crime).
Read more about the Landfill Communities Fund.
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How will the government and DMOs address the challenges of including glass in DRS while ensuring a level playing field across the UK?
There's no easy solution to include glass in the DRS while maintaining a level playing field. Potential approaches include a phased introduction of glass, potentially with higher deposits to reflect its logistical challenges. The government and DMOs could incentivise innovation in glass packaging design and subsidise dedicated return points for glass-handling. Exemptions for smaller businesses unable to handle glass might also be necessary. Any successful solution will likely blend several approaches. It must address the differing priorities of devolved administrations, balance environmental benefits with logistical and cost implications, and be supported by robust consumer education campaigns emphasizing the importance of glass recycling.