The Environment Agency is seeking views on proposals to introduce new waste charges and update existing charging regimes from April 2025.
What is being proposed?
Proposals include:
- A 10% additional levy to apply to annual subsistence charges related to waste.
- New and updated hourly rates (the EA uses hourly rate charging when additional time or materials costs arise for regulatory activities that are not already covered by the cost of a permit).
- A waste fee for intervention to recover the cost of regulation where operators lack authorisation. If the EA reasonably suspects a waste operation is breaching the Environmental Permitting Regulations or Environment Protection Act, the operator will have to pay for the time the EA takes to identify the suspected breach and help to put things right.
- Registration and compliance charges for waste exemptions. For farmers, the EA is proposing a reduced compliance charge for a set of 15 common on-farm waste exemptions. Any additional waste exemptions beyond the common on-farm waste exemptions will have the same compliance charge as for all other operators.
Why are the proposals being proposed?
The proposals are designed to fund regulatory work targeting waste crime (which can involve illegal waste sites, illegal dumping, landfill tax avoidance, abuse of waste permits and exemptions, and illegal exports). The income generated will enable the EA to invest more money in enforcement.
What are the potential impacts of the proposals?
Waste is produced by most businesses. Anyone who is involved with any part of the waste management chain has obligations in due diligence, and the burden to prove you have taken all reasonable steps to do your due diligence is very high. Businesses should already ensure that they carry out their due diligence when it comes to any material which they produce, move, and arrange to remove. However, if the new charges are implemented, there will be more regulatory oversight and more enforcement by the regulator, so ensuring your waste operations are compliant will be of even greater importance.
What happens next?
Those from the waste, water and farming sectors are encouraged to have their say on the proposals. The consultation runs from 11 November 2024 until midnight on 20 January 2025. The EA’s response should then be published within 12 weeks of the consultation closing.
If you have any questions or concerns about waste management, or if you have had correspondence or enforcement action from the EA, please get in touch with our Regulatory team who will be happy to help.