Bin tax muddle leaves green policy in disarray

Gordon Brown's green policies were thrown into confusion yesterday after ministers confirmed that they would be pushing ahead with pilot schemes for controversial new "pay-as-you-throw" bin taxes.
The Prime Minister had been anxious to distance himself from what he saw as unpopular "waste taxes" – which could cost typical households £250 a year – and No 10 claimed last night that plans for new schemes would not be rolled out across the country.

But Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, announced that powers to set up pilot schemes for charging households who put out more waste would be included in the Climate Change Bill, sparking allegations of Cabinet disarray on the issue.

The confusion began last week when the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which had intended to push ahead with national bin taxes, was over-ruled by Downing Street, which is unenthusiastic about the plans before forthcoming local elections.

The U-turn was the latest sign of Mr Brown's fear of introducing new green taxes that are seen as disastrous electorally but are being heavily promoted within Whitehall as essential to any programme to avert climate change.
Last night, the Conservatives attacked the confusion within the Government.

Eric Pickles, the local government spokesman, said: "This just shows how Gordon Brown cannot be trusted – one week briefing that he opposes bin taxes, the next introducing this new tax on family homes by stealth. This isn't a green tax but a green fig leaf to hike local taxes on top of council tax. No one should believe a word that Mr Brown says."

Yesterday Defra published a document setting out plans to allow all councils to charge bin taxes in the new Climate Change Bill to be introduced next month. However, the document was withdrawn later and replaced with a proposal to introduce only a handful of pilot schemes.

Downing Street sources said the entire scheme, which involved households being charged either for each sack or bin of non-recyclable rubbish or by the weight of rubbish they put out, had "gone back to the drawing board".

The confusion within the Government's "green" policy emerged with Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, due to set out plans for an environmentally sustainable transport policy. In a statement to MPs today, she will announce plans for households to get "personal travel plans" aimed at cutting the amount of carbon dioxide they produced.

The Department for Transport has run pilot schemes in which families have cut their car use by an average of 20 per cent after working with government advisers to see where they could use alternatives.

Ms Kelly said yesterday that the plans were about "creating the incentives to make responsible choices".

She will again make clear that a national toll scheme remains far off the agenda but will announce congestion-charging schemes in cities that could lead to national motorways being brought into a tolling system.
By Robert Winnett, Charles Clover and James Kirkup
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