Ministers waste no time in dumping Labour 'bin tax'

Pilot projects to charge households by the weight of their rubbish failed to take off and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, above right, confirmed yesterday the scheme would be scrapped.

He said that instead families should be rewarded for the amount they recycle, along similar lines to a scheme already operating in Windsor and Maidenhead where households get vouchers to spend in local shops or leisure facilities.

Mr Pickles robustly denied the idea would actually encourage consumption, creating more waste as families sought to earn points.

On the BBC, he said: "That's just bloody – I nearly swore – that's ridiculous.

"You should treat people with respect instead of having a bunch of bin inspectors or bin police."

Of the reward scheme he said: "It doesn't put the cost up, what it does is increases the recycling rate and puts money back in the economy.

"What we are looking to do is make this country one of the green economies of Europe and to do that we need to increase our recycling rate and we believe this incentive scheme is the best way of doing that."

Shadow Environment Secretary and Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn said: "We know this Government is a coalition, but you'd think that Conservative Ministers could at least agree. Last week (Environment Secretary) Caroline Spelman said it was up to local councils to decide how to collect waste. Now it seems that Eric Pickles wants to run a ruler over every rubbish collection scheme in the country.

"There has never been a plan to force local authorities to charge householders for excessive waste. It was the then Tory-led Local Government Association which asked for the power to try out different schemes, and the Labour Government responded with the provisions in the Climate Change Act.

"It should be for local councils to decide how best to collect waste and increase recycling, but everyone knows we need to send much less to landfill."