Seven London councils are on course to receive budgetary boosts totalling £4.75m in November thanks to a publicly owned energy-from-waste facility.
Edmonton EcoPark in Enfield has been generating electricity from householders’ black-bin-bag waste for the National Grid since 1971.
This year the facility will see its income rise considerably, so the North London Waste Authority (NLWA), the public body responsible for Edmonton EcoPark, is proposing that these unexpected earnings be returned to the seven local authorities.
In practice this would involve the NLWA waiving the cost for waste disposal for the month of November for Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, and Waltham Forest, effectively giving the councils a ‘windfall dividend’.
NLWA chair, Cllr Clyde Loakes, said: ‘During this extreme cost-of-living crisis and rising inflation, we’ve decided to act now to return this money to the public by helping to ease the monetary pressures on their local councils and their services.
‘Wholesale energy prices are expected to remain high over the winter, and if that is the case there will be further “windfall dividends” to come. This shows that the public ownership of utilities can bring direct benefits to communities, instead of just the shareholders of the big energy companies.’
