More financial uncertainty is being piled onto councils over the distribution of a fresh funding stream, The MJ has been told.
Once fully operational, UK councils are expected to receive an extra £1.2bn from the Government’s delayed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, which aims to shift the cost of collecting household waste from taxpayers to producers.
However, the estimated allocations for councils in 2024-25 has still not been publicly shared and may not be confirmed until as late as February – after local authorities have to draw up their budgets for next year.
Whitehall officials have promised councils a windfall from EPR but have refused to guarantee other funding will not be cut as a result and the uncertainty over estimates has led to warnings there could be ‘section 114 notices galore’.
A Whitehall insider said initial figures would be shared with councils in August before ‘decent figures’ are shared at the provisional settlement in early December and final figures when the settlement is confirmed, which is due before the end of January but has been delayed until the first week of February at the earliest in recent years.
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