The Environmental Services Association has urged the Government not to cut back spending on recycling. With £270M already reallocated on the Green Homes Plan and ‘green hotline’, DEFRA is likely to spend less on recycling next year, the ESA warns. ‘Building the British component of Europe’s recycling society costs more money, not less, and it needs the Environment Agency to focus even more on securing convictions of environment criminals,’ ESA chief executive, Dirk Hazell, said. He also hit out at comments made by DEFRA’s permanent secretary, Helen Ghosh, that spending priorities for future financial years would not be decided until February. ‘To become even better recyclers, waste managers and councils need certainty that necessary money will be forthcoming. And the Environment Agency must know if it can still afford to catch criminals from next April,’ he said.