§ Norman BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what(a) grants and (b) borrowing permissions have been made available to local authorities, in each year from 1997 to date, to facilitate (i) waste minimisation, (ii) reuse of materials, (iii) recycling of materials and (iv) incineration of waste. [96476]
§ Mr. MeacherThe main source of revenue funding for local authority waste services is formula general grant, comprising the main Revenue Support Grant and National Non-Domestic Rates, provided by the Government under the annual Local Government Finance Settlement. This is distributed to local authorities through Formula Spending Shares. Waste services are covered by the Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services (EPCS) block of FSS which provides for a wide range of local authority services including libraries, local transport and flood defence, as well as waste. The element for waste services is not separately identified within the total, and spending decisions are for local authorities to make in the light of their own priorities and the wishes of their electorate. In total, the figures for the block are:
£ million 2000–01 8,175 2001–02 8,601 2002–03 8,961 2003–04 9,340 2004–05 9,583 2005–06 9,896 The figures for 2000–01 to 2003–04 are those provided in the Local Government Finance Settlement for the respective years. The figures for 2004–05 and 269W 2005–06 are those set out in SR2002. They do not include resource equalisation which took place in 2003–04 and increases to EPCS FSS by £2.230 million in each of the three years to 2005–06.
Prior to 2000–01 resources were provided to local authorities for recycling under a Supplementary Credit Approval scheme. The figure for 1997–98 was £2.159 million.
Defra's Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund has provided £50 million in 2002–03 and £90 million in 2003–04 to encourage local authorities to expand recycling operations in their area. The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has also been allocated £40 million from 2000–01 to 2003–04 to work on overcoming market barriers to reuse and recycling of waste. An additional £15 million was made available to WRAP for 2002–04 from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund to promote increased use of alternative materials as aggregates.
The Government have also provided Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits for waste and recycling projects of £220 million in SR 2000 and £355 million in SR 2002. So far, PFI waste projects approved by Defra have typically been large integrated waste management schemes including a variety of waste treatment options.
As part of a Local Public Sector Agreements (LPSA) the Government offers, at the outset, a pump-priming grant, unsupported credit approvals and potential relaxations in statutory and administrative requirements. To date local authorities have been awarded approximately £5 million in pump priming grants, and £16 million in Unsupported Credit Approvals to facilitate the improvement of waste minimisation and recycling. Typically, financial support has been used to improve enforcement and publicity; to develop civic amenity sites; and to initiate or expand kerb-side collection schemes.