FactCheck: a 'binned' tax?

The background

Has the rubbish tax been binned or not?

When Joan Ruddock made her statement last November she was adamant the plans had been given the green light, but newspaper headlines over this bank holiday weekend painted a different picture.

"Brown: I will bin the rubbish tax", was one red-top screamer.

So, have Ruddock's plans been dumped? Or was she right, and the bin tax will come in for the "first time"?

Analysis

The idea of taxing people for bulging bins has been knocking about for years. A leaked Cabinet document from 2004 showed Whitehall was looking at a figure of around £1-£5 a month for a bin tax.

In the secret memo then Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett admitted: "I accept there will be potential political risks."

She was not wrong. And it appears Gordon Brown shares her concerns.

After years of discussion the bin tax proposals were firmly thrust onto the policy table by Sir Michael Lyons, in his local government report last March. He detailed plans for a rubbish tax on non-recyclable waste.

Although Brown has ignored the majority of Lyons' recommendations, his Budget speech in the same month - which included raising landfill levies from £3 a tonne to £8 a tonne - led many pundits to think the soon-to-be PM would buy into the idea of a bin tax.

And this is where the first problem emerges: much of what Brown thinks about bin taxes is assumed, or seemingly briefed to journalists. You have to read between the lines, because as far as FactCheck can tell, he has never spoken directly about the issue.

A month after the Lyons report the Local Government Association confirmed that plans had been sent to councils regarding how to implement the bin tax; and up to 30 authorities admitted to having installed microchips in wheelie bins in preparation.

Everything seemed to be pushing ahead. And lo and behold in August 2007 a government-commissioned survey appeared, claiming that most people would support a pay-as-you-throw charge to have their rubbish taken away.

More than half of those questioned said they would back a scheme to penalise households that threw out the most rubbish and rewarded those who recycled the most, according to the poll for Defra. Critics questioned the data but it appeared everything - including the necessary PR - was in place to introduce the bin tax.

But then the dustbin was kicked over. Last September a Labour think-tank came out firmly against the idea of extra charges for rubbish collection.

The New Local Government Network said the proposal to charge those putting out too much rubbish, while giving rebates to those who recycle more, would not work. Whispers began to circulate that Brown was not in favour of the plans - amid fears it was one stealth tax too many.

By mid-October such whispers had developed into shouting, with all the national papers reporting that the plans had been scrapped by Brown - although he was never quoted directly.

The closest any paper came was the Times, claiming to be from an informed source, that: "A message came from Downing Street that they [Defra's bin tax plans] should not proceed."

When a story appears in all the papers you are fairly safe to assume that someone, somewhere, is being briefed on good authority. Although they often sail close to the wind, they don't all just make the same story up.

Yet by the end of October the bin tax was seemingly back on again; with Defra tucking the plans away its 145-page report on the Climate Change Bill. Ruddock compounded the details with a ministerial announcement two weeks later.

So it was back on - but for how long?

After last week's disastrous local election results for Labour up popped a splash in the Daily Mail saying the bin tax had been scrapped. The Sun ran the same story. It said: "The PM is to make it clear the idea is a non-starter."

FactCheck is glad someone is going to make it "clear", because this is getting a little confusing.

Again, at no point did Brown comment directly on bin taxes, only going so far as to say he "understood" the struggles families were having with bills.

But there is still time for one more U-turn...

When FactCheck called Downing Street today it was told the pilot schemes for bin taxes would still go ahead, it had no idea where the stories over the bin tax being dumped had come from.

A call to Defra got the same reply: it's business as usual. The plans go-ahead.

Whether the plans extend beyond the pilot stage while Brown is in charge we will have to wait and see.

FactCheck rating: wait and see

How ratings work

Every time a FactCheck article is published we'll give it a rating from zero to five.

The lower end of the scale indicates that the claim in question largely checks out, while the upper end of the scale suggests misrepresentation, exaggeration, a massaging of statistics and/or language.

In the unlikely event that we award a 5 out of 5, our factcheckers have concluded that the claim under examination has absolutely no basis in fact.

The sources

Ruddock's statement - November 2007
The Sun - Brown: I will bin the rubbish tax
Lyons review - bin tax plans
"Pay-as-you-throw" wins support
Gordon blocks bin tax - October 2007

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