Rubbish Tax creeps nearer
Families face £120 a year tax on their rubbish | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Families could be forced to pay a rubbish tax of up to £120 a year under proposals being considered at the highest levels of Government.
Plans to let councils impose a levy on household waste are set out in a restricted policy review document drawn up by the Prime Minister's strategy unit....
The cost would be on top of their existing council tax bills.
Around 30 councils in England have already taken the first step towards such a system by introducing wheelie-bins with microchips
that weigh their contents.
....The plans were criticised last night by the Conservatives. Eric Pickles, the shadow local government minister, said: "There is already massive public resentment at the way working families and pensioners are being punished by punitive levels of council tax. Now every household in Britain faces the prospect of new rubbish taxes on top.
"Bin taxes would be deeply harmful to the local environment by causing a surge in fly-tipping and back yard burning, and cuts to the frequency of rubbish collection are already harming public health due to the increase in smells, vermin and infestations. Is it too much to ask for our streets to be cleaned and bins to be emptied?"
Corin Taylor, head of research at the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, said there were growing concerns that Labour's green tax agenda was simply a new way to raise money.
"There are no plans in this document to offset the proposed rubbish tax with lower taxes elsewhere, nor is there any suggestion that households that meet or exceed recycling targets will be given a council tax discount," he said.
A Downing Street spokesman last night played down the strategy unit report. "There are no current plans to introduce a tax on household rubbish," he said.
So it is a done deal then - Downing Street denies: pack of lies.
Rubbish collection is a public health measure as EU Referendum reminds us, not another chance to mulct us in the name of greenery.