Tax on snacks for Britain's litter-strewn streets
SWEETS, fizzy drinks and other snacks could soon cost more – to raise cash for cleaning up litter.
They have become the target for price rises because it is their packaging that is most often found discarded on Britain’s litter-strewn streets.
DEBATE: ARE YOU FED UP WITH BEING TAXED FOR EVERYTHING?
The proposals are published today in a report by MPs. But critics pointed out last night that any price rises would only force public-spirited citizens to pay more for their treats because of an anti-social minority.
Shadow Local Government Minister Bob Neill said: “Given there is no prospect of such levies being offset by tax cuts for families under Labour, this is just another stealth tax – this time on children’s sweets. There is nothing Gordon Brown won’t tax given the excuse.”
Revenue from the “litter levy” will be handed to local councils for keeping the streets clean. And in another draconian environmental scheme, every household could be ordered to keep their own slop buckets for food recycling.
Last night, the proposals outlined in a report by the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee provoked a backlash from critics angry that families are already squeezed by rising council tax while having to endure fortnightly waste collections and other demanding recycling measures.
Council tax has more than doubled since Labour came to power, coming to more than £1,400 a year for the average property this year. Yet many households are complaining over deteriorating services, with street cleaning and rubbish collection dwindling in many towns and cities.
Doretta Cocks of the Campaign for Weekly Bin Collections said: “At one time, councils did a marvellous job keeping the streets clean. Now it seems everything is too much trouble or too expensive and we shouldn’t expect the same service.”
Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: “This is yet another poor excuse to create a stealth tax and try to control people’s behaviour. This would be just another example of the responsible majority being forced to pay for the misdemeanours of the minority.
“By all means we should reduce landfill and improve recycling rates but that would be best achieved by using the carrot, not the stick.” The levy on snacks and drinks would mean even more taxpayers’ cash being handed to local councils.
Ministers were last night considering the committee’s proposals for overhauling the Government’s waste strategy. They include more families having to keep slop buckets for waste food under plans to end the dumping of leftovers in landfill sites by 2015.
But the MPs also believe consumers should be hit with a new nationally-imposed tax to raise cash for clearing up litter. The committee said research identified “smoking materials”, sweet wrappers and drinks containers as the most frequently discarded rubbish. Its report said: “The Government should evaluate the practicalities of applying a small levy to products which, with their packaging, contribute the largest volumes of litter.
“Revenues could be distributed to local authorities to help clean up their neighbourhoods.” Michael Jack, Tory chairman of the Labour-dominated committee, claimed that the move would add just “a fraction of a penny” to costs. He compared the measure to the scheme under which the price of electrical goods includes a sum towards the cost of disposal when items reach the end of their lives.
The Conservatives seized on calls by the committee for the idea of “bin taxes” to be revived. Their local government spokesman Bob Neill said: “Bin taxes are a Labour tax that will not die. They are just a Labour excuse to tax more by stealth and will harm the environment by fuelling fly-tipping and backyard burning.”
The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is considering banning any items that can be recycled or composted from being dumped in to landfill sites by 2020, but the report urges the department to set a deadline of 2015.
A spokesman said: “Our latest research shows that separate food waste collections are definitely working in the areas that are using them, and people are happy with them.”
