Responding to measures announced in today’s Queen’s Speech on the
Environment Bill, the Local Government Association’s Environment
spokesman, Cllr David Renard, said:
“We will work with the Government to ensure that the Environment
Bill and Office for Environmental Protection is effective in
addressing the concerns of communities.
“Councils want to lead the environmental improvement agenda, but
need to be empowered to do so. National climate change
expectations and air quality targets are unlikely to be met
unless councils are given long-term funding, devolved powers and
easier access to complex government funding pots.
“A joint national taskforce led by councils would harness the
critical partnership between local and national government to
coordinate and drive climate change action for the benefit of
communities, the country and the planet.
“To help councils increase recycling
rates, manufacturers need to use packaging
that is fully and easily recyclable and government needs to
ensure producers pay the full cost of recycling
packaging. More importantly, manufacturers need to reduce waste
at the point of source to stop unnecessary and unrecyclable
material becoming an issue in the first place.
“Clearer labelling and increased charges for hard-to-recycle
products would help councils, manufacturers and the public be
part of the recycling revolution that is urgently needed.”
