Chaos and Confusion as Brown bottles it again on scrapping bin taxes

Chaos and Confusion as Brown bottles it again on scrapping bin taxes

The Government was today accused of burying bad news as it finally slipped out an announcement confirming that bin taxes – new charges for collecting rubbish bins – WILL go ahead.

Hidden in the small print of an announcement on a Climate Change Bill was the news from Labour Ministers that the Bill will provide legislative cover “to pilot local authority incentives for household waste minimisation and recycling”. This means changing the law to allow town halls to charge for the collection of household rubbish, which is currently forbidden in law.

This news adds a new twist to the chaos and confusion over Labour’s plans for new bin taxes, as Downing Street ruled them out last week, and then only 24 hours later, published a response to a Select Committee report backing them.

In July, the cross-party Select Committee savaged the bin tax plans, warning of more fly-tipping, neighbourhood bin wars, non-payment by the public and how the so-called ‘financial incentive’ would raise the overall burden of taxation.

Bin taxes are expected to be harmful to the environment, by giving a financial incentive for households to burn their rubbish in their back garden or to fly-tip it to avoid paying. 

Andy Morgan, Councillor for Hulton Ward said  “Despite Gordon Brown’s talk of new politics, the Labour Government has been caught red handed reverting back to its old ways of burying bad news. Bin taxes will harm the  Bolton environment by leading to a surge in fly-tipping and toxic backyard burning, yet the Government is cynically trying to give this hated tax some political cover by hiding it in its Climate Change Bill.

 “This just shows how Gordon Brown cannot be trusted – one week briefing out 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 Gordon Brown says.”