HC Deb 31 March 1998 vol 309 c499W
Mr. Etherington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to change the way in which statutory joint waste disposal authorities are funded currently. [37356]

Angela Eagle

I am concerned about current funding arrangements for statutory Joint Waste Disposal Authorities (JWDAs). At the moment, the constituent authorities share the costs according to their shares of the Council Tax base. This system does not reflect the service each authority draws from the JWDA and provides little encouragement for waste minimisation or other sustainable methods of waste management. The JWDAs have also expressed similar concerns to me.

Under a tonnage-based system, authorities' contributions would be apportioned on the basis of the amount of waste they had delivered for disposal in a preceding period. The more successful they are in minimising waste and diverting it to other forms of sustainable waste management such as recycling and composting, the less they would deliver for disposal and the less they would pay. This will form one more element in our policy to encourage waste management options higher up the waste hierarchy.

I have therefore requested officials in my department to work out methods for a tonnage-based system and to discuss them with the local authority associations.