Joint Ministerial Statement by Ben Bradshaw, the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Local Environment, and Yvette Cooper, the Minister for Housing and Planning, on Sustainable Waste Management
1. The Parliamentary Under Secretary for Local Environment (Ben Bradshaw): My colleague, the Minister for Housing and Planning (Yvette Cooper), and I are today announcing publication of the final versions of three policy documents on waste strategies and planning on which we consulted earlier this year. These are:
i. Planning Policy Statement 10 (PPS10): Planning for Sustainable Waste
Management;
ii. Guidance on the Preparation of Municipal Waste Management Strategies;
iii. Changes to Decision-making Principles in Waste Strategy 2000.
2. Together these provide for a more integrated and effective framework in England for delivering the significant expansion in new waste management facilities needed to meet EU obligations and national policy. We have considered very carefully the responses to the consultation documents. While a number of detailed points were made, which have been addressed in finalising the documents, the approach set out received broad support. This includes:
- greater clarity on what is required at regional and local levels: to ensure decisions are made at the most appropriate level in a timely fashion, and effective integration of spatial planning and municipal waste management strategies.
- increased integration of waste management alongside other spatial planning concerns (e.g. housing and economic development).
- more emphasis on regular monitoring and review to ensure that plans and strategies are up-to-date.
3. The planning system is pivotal to the adequate and timely provision of the new facilities needed for all types of waste. The new PPS10 underlines the importance of planning for, and consenting, the necessary number and range of facilities to support sustainable waste management. Government expects development plans to be up-to-date and fit for purpose.
4. Government also expects all local authorities to have in place a fit for purpose and up-to-date Municipal Waste Management Strategy. In some areas this is a statutory requirement. The new guidance provides greater clarity on the role of strategies and the key requirements for developing and reviewing them.
5. Both this new guidance and the new PPS10 emphasise the need for effective community engagement and full appraisal of options. They will be accompanied by practice guidance which will provide further support and advice. Both sets of practice guidance are currently being finalised and we expect to publish them later in the summer.
6. The policy review, which informed the preparation of these documents, included, in response to concerns expressed by a number of stakeholders, the underpinning decision-making principles set out in Waste Strategy 2000.1
7. The key aim of waste policy of moving waste management "up the waste hierarchy"2 has not changed. However, the principles of 'proximity' of waste disposal and 'self sufficiency' (as set out in the EU Waste Framework Directive) have been re-formulated and are now set out as objectives to be delivered through the framework provided by development plans and strategies. The objectives are that communities should take more responsibility for their own waste (self-sufficiency), and that waste should disposed of in one of the nearest appropriate installations (proximity).
8. The role of the Best Practicable Environmental Option process in decision-making has also been reviewed. In future, the tenets that underlie BPEO will be delivered in spatial planning through plan-led strategies that drive waste management up the waste hierarchy. These strategies, at both the regional and local level, will be subject to Sustainability Appraisal and set within the community engagement that is central to the reformed planning system. Similarly, local authorities developing municipal waste management strategies should undertake Strategic Environmental Assessment, combined with a thorough assessment of social and economic factors.3
9. PPS10 also includes a requirement for regional spatial strategies to take account of any Government advice on waste arisings and recycling potential and any nationally identified need for waste management facilities. The Government consulted on both what this advice should be, and who should be responsible for both drawing up and disseminating it. The consultation was again broadly supportive of the proposed approach. Our intention is to provide more information centrally to help inform waste planning and publish this periodically. We expect to publish the first such advice before the end of this year.
10. The three documents that we are publishing today will help deliver the Government's vision for sustainable waste management, as set out in the UK's strategy for sustainable development. This is to protect human health and the environment by producing less waste and by using it as a resource wherever possible. Through more sustainable waste management, moving the management of waste up the "waste hierarchy" of reduction, re-use, recycling and composting, using waste as a source of energy, and only disposing as a last resort the Government aims to break the link between economic growth and the environmental impact of waste.
11. Government recognises the size of the task and everyone has a role to play in managing waste more sustainably: manufacturers, waste managers, local communities and the authorities which serve them. The policy set out in these documents provides the clear, consistent, and integrated policy framework necessary to deliver a significant step-change in the delivery of new waste management facilities.
1. Primarily in Chapter 3 and Part 2
2. Chapter 3 part 2
3. Where an authority is under a duty to produce a municipal waste management
strategy the authority must carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment
(SEA) in line with the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes
Regulations 2004. Where an authority is not required to produce such a
strategy under any legislative provision, authorities are not under a
duty to carry out an SEA, but we would encourage them to do so. Full details
on the application of SEA can be found under the Environmental Assessment
section at www.odpm.gov.uk/planning.
Page published: 21 July 2005