01/01/11 Councils can cut costs significantly without cutting services
Cutting Waste: Cutting Costs
A new report published today by The Conservative Environment Network
suggests radical changes to the way we recycle and get rid of our
waste. ‘Cutting Waste: Cutting Costs and Improving Waste and Recycling
Services’ was produced by Eunomia, a specialist waste consultancy, and
highlights the ways in which the incentives and targets for councils and
the industry need reform as well as how productivity can be boosted
whilst saving money.
Eunomia propose a series of recommendations that could save the
public purse £770 million a year. Not only could these savings start to
be made during this parliament, but crucially would be made whilst
improving rather than cutting services.
Through an analysis of the performance of the country’s best
performing local authorities (in terms of both cost and recycling rate),
Eunomia’s paper shows how the incentives and targets which local
authorities face could be better designed to maximise investment in
infrastructure, encourage councils to work better together and avoid
perverse and unintended negative impacts on the environment.
The report suggests a new measure to replace the recycling rate as a
measure of performance, analyses and recommends dismantling the LATS,
and calls for no decline in the landfill tax in real terms after 2014 to
continue to stimulate investment.
The report also investigates the inefficiencies in waste management
and sets out proposals for boosting productivity and increasing
partnership working that could not only yield over £700 million worth of
savings that benefit local councils and council taxpayers, but also
improve residents satisfaction of waste services.
Paul Foote, Director of the Conservative Environment Network said,
‘Getting waste policy right is
extremely important to the environment and to taxpayers. And this
report shows how we can do just that.
By showing how savings can be made at the same time as making waste
management greener, this is a welcome contribution to the waste debate.
The report tackles some of the knottiest issues of waste management
with the rigour and seriousness it requires and comes out with clear
recommendations that will have a real impact on the way government and
local authorities think about cutting waste.’
James Fulford, Director at Eunomia said,
‘Local authorities have
transformed their waste management services in recent years, leading to
dramatic increases in recycling and reductions in landfilling. However,
the range of costs and performance across councils is too wide. Our
report shows that, by applying the learning of the best performing
councils across England, service levels and recycling performance can be
increased at the same time as cutting overall costs. In these times of
public sector austerity, we believe that council waste services provide a
rare opportunity to deliver savings and improve services, provided
Government acts to incentivise and support good practice.’
Media contact:
Eunomia, Emily Moulson, 0117 917 2251
CEN, Paul Foote, 0779 435 8233
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