Councils will be expected to offer weekly waste collections under a Conservative Government, the shadow communities secretary has announced.

Eric Pickles said he would change Whitehall policy so there was an expectation that councils should offer full weekly collections. He pledged to offer central funding to all local authorities for a weekly collection, as well as for comprehensive recycling collections.

Plans for ‘pay-as-you-throw’ incentive schemes would also be scrapped. ‘Conservatives believe that decent rubbish collections are a vital front-line council service to help protect the local environment and public health,’ he said. ‘We will make it easier for families to go green and increase recycling by working with households, not punishing them with heavy-handed bin taxes, bun cuts and bin fines.’