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Pay-as-you-throw tax to be "binned"


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Pay-as-you-throw tax will be binned under plans to be unveiled by the Government this week

 

 

By Gerri Peev

Last updated at 10:08 AM on 7th June 2010

 

 

Controversial pay-as-you-throw bin taxes are to be killed off under plans to be unveiled by the Government this week.

 

Families will instead be given vouchers and discounts for recycling.

 

Millions of homes now have wheelie bins fitted with microchips to weigh their contents. The move was to pave the way for families to be charged up to £100 a year for their rubbish.

 

 

article-0-0165668F00000578-148_468x351.jpg Householders will see their council taxes come down or earn vouchers for local stores if they increase the amount they recycle

 

But the plans drawn up by Labour are to be ditched, and instead householders will see their council taxes come down or earn vouchers for local stores if they increase the amount they recycle.

 

It is still unclear, however, whether ministers will ban councils from imposing fortnightly rubbish collections to save money.

 

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles is to announce the Uturn on Wednesday.

He will say: 'Bin taxes are not a green tax. They were simply another excuse by Labour to tax by stealth.

 

They will spark a surge in fly-tipping, leaving a blot on the landscape; fuel a rise in backyard burning, damaging the environment; and spark a flurry of neighbourhood bin wars as angry householders dump their rubbish in a neighbour's bin in an attempt to avoid being hammered by another stealth tax.'

 

Tory ministers have said they favour a 'carrot rather than stick' approach to reducing rubbish in landfill sites.

 

More than two-and-a-half million homes have wheelie bins fitted with microchips.

The bins, which can be electronically identified and weighed, are designed for 'payasyou-throw' rubbish tax schemes. Under such schemes families who put out more waste would pay higher taxes to their local council.

 

article-0-09EB36E4000005DC-900_468x344.jpg

 

 

Gordon Brown promised to ditch bin taxes in the spring of 2008, at a point when the unpopularity among voters of fortnightly collections, strict bin rules, and the threat of pay-as-you-throw was at its height. But research earlier this year showed that the use of chipped bins had quietly spread over the past year.

 

The Government will use plans drawn up by George Osborne in opposition to allow local authorities to encourage residents to recycle. Tory-controlled Windsor and Maidenhead council started such a scheme which saw recycling increase by 30 per cent.

 

Matthew Elliott, of the Tax-Payers' Alliance, welcomed the move. He said: 'Householders already pay council tax to have their bins emptied, so charging them more for not sorting their rubbish, or discarding too much, would have been unfair.'

 

The Government will also scrap targets to squeeze more housing into suburban areas. Labour had allowed back gardens to be redefined as 'brownfield sites' - where building is encouraged - and developers would squeeze in lots of smaller homes to meet housing targets.

 

It is not known yet whether ministers will abolish the requirement that a quarter of all new developments must be 'affordable'.

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284561/Pay-throw-bin-tax-axed-Government-plans.html#ixzz0qAe5lSfr

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