The Government’s recent Comprehensive Spending Review of central and local government spending aims to reduce the fiscal deficit by £81 billion by 2014-2015. The bottom line is this means overall savings in funding to councils of around 7.1% a year for four years and could have a number of important implications for recycling and waste management services.
Potential outcomes include more local authorities engaging in joint procurement and an acceleration of the trend towards greater outsourcing of services both of contracts as a whole and within an existing contract. Companies with the relevant quality accreditation may increasingly be responsible for self-monitoring.
Undoubtedly local authorities will be looking for ‘Best Value’ across the board and for contractors to generate savings via new low carbon vehicle technology, improved fleet performance and defensive driver training which contributes to reduced maintenance costs and improved fuel conservation. Through new technology in a wider sense and staff development we also see the opportunity for savings in back office and support services.
One of the most important ways local authorities can save money is via increased recycling participation which reduces their landfill tax bill. We will work with them to promote recycling and divert waste from landfill including supporting co-mingled collections which are simpler for residents, boost yields and need less vehicles, which contributes towards a reduction in carbon emissions.
By working in partnership with local authorities we will strive to achieve ‘more with less’. In July, we signed a historic contract with Staffordshire County Council to run the county’s energy from waste project as part of a 25-year PFI. The contract will save Staffordshire taxpayers more than £250 million over the next 25 years, compared with sending the residual waste to landfill.
Staffordshire have oversized the facility so that adjoining authorities in Sandwell, Walsall and Warwickshire can also send their residual waste to recover energy resulting in a further £150m saving. We will be working closely with the County Council to develop the new facility in line with its environmental objectives and maximise landfill diversion.
In summary, we will continue to be ready to offer solutions to our customers, partners and employees in this new age of austerity. We will work as hard as humanly possible with all our partners and local authorities to try and protect front line services, because we think local authority consumer participation surveys reveal that the regular refuse and recycling collection service is the most valued by the local population and local residents. We have built up an expectation because the service has improved and I would hate to see that in any way, go backwards.
Ian Williams, Regional Director, Veolia Environmental Services