News Story

Disappointment for waste PFI schemes

Councils across the UK are expressing their disappointment of the removal of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding from seven waste projects as announced in the Spending Review.

The future of seven major local authority waste treatment projects has been thrown into doubt after Defra announced that it was withdrawing the PFI funding from them.

The seven projects include the North London Waste Authority, which received the single largest award of waste PFI funding in March 2010.

The full list of projects affected is:

• Cheshire West and Chester, and Cheshire East
• Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire ('Project Transform')
• Gloucestershire
• Leicestershire
• Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire
• North London Waste Authority; and
• South London Waste Partnership

The department said that the move would save it £13m by the end of the Spending Review period in 2014/15, rising to £26m a year from 2017/18.

The councils involved have all expressed their disappointment at the Chancellors announcement and The South London Waste Partnership – which is comprised of Kingston, Croydon, Sutton and Merton revealed that it would now only sign up to a long-term deal if it still made economic sense.

Cormac Stokes, chair of the Partnership's management group, said: "It goes without saying that we are disappointed. What is regrettable is that the reasons behind the decision have not yet been made clear – we will be seeking clarification from Defra on this matter in order to understand the wider waste management picture."

Elsewhere a spokesperson from the Project Transform scheme – which is comprised of Coventry City, Solihull metropolitan borough and Warwickshire county councils – told letsrecycle.com that it was unaffected by the announcement as it had already taken the decision to cease the PFI process.

Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire councils also commented on the announcement, Councillor Heather Smith, cabinet member for waste at Northamptonshire county council, said: "This is disappointing for everyone involved in the project although we completely understand the need to review all spending in these economically challenging times."

Defra stressed that the other 11 waste PFI projects currently in procurement would retain their provisional allocation of PFI money, adding that it was also committed to supporting the 21 other deals that had already been signed.