Controversial bin tax plans that would have seen households charged for the waste they throw away have been scrapped by the coalition government. The laws, proposed by Gordon Brown’s former Labour government, would have allowed local councils to force residents to pay for rubbish collections and enabled them to fine families who were over filling bins or not recycling properly.
The immediate axing of the scheme was announced last night by environment secretary Caroline Spelman and communities secretary Eric Pickles. With council tax bills already at record levels and set to rise further to help pay for recycling initiatives, the news is sure to come as music to the ears for cash-strapped families.
Local government ministers will confirm that the bin tax will be removed from the statute books this autumn and environment ministers have stopped all funding for the pilot bin tax schemes. Under the scrapped law, once a pilot scheme is introduced, bin taxes could be rolled out across the UK without a vote in Parliament.
At the announcement, Mr Pickles said the taxes would have harmed the environment by fuelling backyard burning and fly-tipping, adding that families would have to lock up their bins at night. Mrs Spelman said the government was keen to reward people for recycling properly rather than punish struggling families with fines and taxes.
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