Council to suffer £1.3m shortfall over waste collection

The government's scheme is due to come into force in early 2026

A council has called on the government for extra funding for a food waste scheme that could leave the authority with an estimated £1.3m shortfall.

The new scheme would see weekly collections of food waste for recycling and composting for households in England.

Yet the funding allocation from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was £1.1m - £1.3m less than North Norfolk District Council had calculated.

A spokesperson for Defra said: "We have brought forward up to £295m in capital funding for the provision of food waste containers and vehicles to local authorities."

In a meeting of the North Norfolk District Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 14 February, a report outlined how the council would need to borrow money in order to fund the scheme.

The scheme would be a part of the government's Environment Act 2021, and would impose that local authorities across England collect the same recyclable waste streams, such as paper and card, plastic, glass, metal and food and garden waste.

Defra has been required to cover the costs of purchasing the food waste bins for households, and the vehicles that would collect the scraps of food.

'Short by 50%'

Yet initial work by council officers has suggested the proposed capital funding from the government would not be enough to cover the full costs of the equipment the council would need to deliver the scheme to households in north Norfolk.

The council would receive around £1.1m of funding from Defra with £716,000 going towards vehicles to carry out the collections and the rest of the money going towards providing food caddies and bins.

Callum Ringer, the Liberal Democrat councillor for environmental and waste services, said "It's drastically less than [we estimated for] the costs... we are getting £1.1m so far.

"It's short by 50 per cent, and that's 50 per cent off a fairly minimal service.

"Our residents are keen to go ahead with it... it's [funding] that is delaying the whole process," he said.

Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee have agreed to call on Defra to provide more money and will send a letter to the government presenting evidence to prove this case.

A spokesperson for Defra said: "We have brought forward up to £295m in capital funding for the provision of food waste containers and vehicles to local authorities required to expand or rollout weekly food waste collection services.

“We continue to work with local authorities and if any additional support is needed, we stand ready to help them further to deliver our reforms.”