BINS LEVY U-TURN ADDS £100 TO COUNCIL TAX

First Published by: This is Money

The Governments promise to abandon pay-as-you-throw bin charges could add £100 or more too Council Tax, it has emerged.

Rubbish tax:
£100 may be added to council tax
 to pay for bin collections

Rubbish tax: £100 may be added to Council Tax to pay for bin collections. Town hall chiefs warned bills may be padded with 'rubbish premiums' if councils are banned from raising bin taxes to cover the growing cost of burying waste in landfill sites.

Powers to let councils charge families for putting out too much rubbish are in the Climate Change Bill, which is going through Parliament. Trials are due to start next year in five areas. Those who do not recycle enough will face bills of at least £50 a year.

But, No10 suggested the rubbish taxes would be axed once the trials end. One source said: 'People made it clear that they don't like a punitive rubbish tax, so it's natural for us to jettison the idea.' But by 2012, The Governments landfill tax escalator, which makes councils pay the Treasury for the waste they bury, will have risen to £60 a ton and EU fines for exceeding landfill targets will have hit £100 a ton. Paul Bettison, of the Local Government Association, said: 'The only thing that councils can do is increase the Council Tax.

'It may be the case that Council Tax is capped. If that happens, there will be difficult decisions about services. 'The Government is going to have to be prepared for old people seeing day centres closed, for swimming pools shut down, and for roads full of holes.' Fears over the Council Tax came as ministers appeared to be falling out with them over dumping pay-as-you-throw taxes.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday suggested Downing Street's comments had been premature. It said: 'We will evaluate the impact of those pilots before making a final decision.' Critics said the Prime Minister promised twice last year to ditch bin taxes. Tory local government spokesman Eric Pickles said: 'Unless ministers pledge to dump bin tax laws, the public should not trust a word Labour say.

READ WHAT: ERIC PICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX  

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