Ministers must tackle planning delays and boost energy-from-waste plants: CBI

The government’s reforms to the planning system must address the fact that the current regime is a major obstacle to an increase in the number of energy-from-waste plants, the CBI has argued.

In a report called Going to waste: making the case for energy from waste, the business organisation said 33 applications for plants made since 2007 had been blocked or were still waiting for a decision from a local authority. On average it takes seven years for a waste management company to get a plant running (of which four years typically are spent in the planning process), it added.

The CBI said: “This is too long if the UK is to update its waste management infrastructure in time to meet binding EU landfill obligations by 2020.”

The report claimed that planning applications were often blocked at the local level on the basis of objections that had already been dealt with at national level, rather than local considerations such as the local supply of waste.

Pressure from local and national interest groups meant that local authorities do not always comply with national policy statements that make it clear energy from waste should play a central role in local waste management strategies.

Expressing concern that the scrapping of regional spatial strategies could have perverse impacts on energy-from-waste projects, the CBI said local authorities and industry needed to work together to develop plants of an appropriate size and type that can handle municipal and commercial and industrial demand.

The business group acknowledged government plans to give communities a more direct say in what can and cannot be built, but said there was an inherent tension between local concerns and national interests – “especially if important climate change, energy security and landfill diversion targets are to be met”.

It urged the government to create “a strong and coherent national planning policy framework that will help ensure local-level development of new strategic energy-from-waste facilities where appropriate”.

The business group said the Department for Communities and Local Government should implement the recommendations made by the Killian Petty review as soon as possible to ensure local planning applications are speedily processed and ensure that “planning decisions continue to flow during any period of review and change to the planning system”.

The CBI report also said:

• Some 300 landfill sites are set to close in the next decade, and £10bn is needed to upgrade the UK’s waste management infrastructure to meet stringent European landfill diversion targets
• With strong leadership from the government on planning, financing and procurement, the UK could quadruple the proportion of energy it generates from waste from 1.5% to 6% by 2015
• Unless urgent steps are taken to cut landfill use, the UK will face fines from the European Union of around £182.5m a year
• Energy from waste is compatible with high levels of recycling, is clean, and is now economically viable on a wide scale
• The government must continue to support PFI and explore with Infrastructure UK and business alternative models of financing energy-from-waste projects as public funding becomes more constrained
• Some local authorities lack the necessary levels of procurement skills to deal with complex projects. “Sometimes local government officials do not have the commercial awareness to negotiate complex business contracts making the process harder to conclude”. The necessary skills need to be embedded and updated in local government, the CBI said.

Neil Bentley, CBI Director of Business Environment, said: “We cannot continue dumping rubbish in landfill sites. Waste that can’t be recycled could be used to heat homes and produce electricity, as well as improving our energy security.

“Across Europe, generating energy from waste is common and compatible with high levels of recycling. The government needs to encourage the development of more anaerobic digestion and incineration plants, and tackle delays in the planning system.”