Critics rubbish idea to charge £5 for refuse collections

Proposals from Tony Blair's think-tank to introduce a £5 tax on household rubbish to encourage people to recycle more of their waste provoked a storm of protest from Opposition MPs yesterday.

Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said council-tax payers could be charged twice for refuse collection under the proposal, being considered by the Downing Street Performance and Innovation Unit.

Friends of the Earth welcomed the idea, arguing that it would encourage recycling.

The blueprint, likely to include a £5 monthly charge for rubbish collection, will be published later this year. A report is also likely to include proposals such as free collection of bottles, cans and paper, part of efforts to meet European targets for cutting the amount of waste dumped in landfill sites.

But Eric Pickles, the Tory spokesman on local government, said: "This proposal is so difficult to implement that it is almost impossible to manage and responsible members of society will be left to pick up the bill for the irresponsible who refuse to pay. Surely people pay their council tax for these services already? Yes, we need to face up to the problem and, yes, we need to encourage recycling but yet another new tax from this Government won't solve anything and will hit those who can't afford to pay the most."

Adrian Sanders, the Liberal Democrats' local government spokesman, said: "What Government should do is to introduce policies that discourage wasteful packaging and the creation of waste in the first place and not make the council-tax payer cough up twice."

But Mr Blair's official spokesman said the proposal was an exercise in "thinking the unthinkable". He said: "It's important to get clear where we are in the process. We haven't received this report yet.

"We need to be clear about what the role of the PIU is – to ask difficult questions, to think the unthinkable. What nobody should do is to jump from a question being asked to the automatic assumption it represents Government policy, because it doesn't."