Waste disposal authorities paid 30% more landfill tax in the first four months of this year, compared with the same period in 2008.
According to provisional data from Revenue and Customs, councils have paid £391M in landfill tax in total from January to the end of April, compared with £299M from January to April the year before.
The tax increased on 1 April, from £32 per tonne to £40 per tonne. In 2007/08, the tax was only £24 per tonne. The figure is likely to be seized on by the Local Government Association, which has been campaigning to convince the Government to honour its 2003 promise that the increases in landfill tax would be ‘revenue neutral’ for councils.
The LGA’s prediction, earlier in the spring, that councils would pay a total of £620M this year could now be an under-estimate (Surveyor, 26 March 2009).
The LGA wants a ‘fair and transparent’ way of identifying how much of the money is being returned to councils to invest in waste management. But environment secretary, Hilary Benn, has responded that £2bn in private-finance initiatives is being made available, as well as additional money to rescue the PFIs.
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