Tobacco levies should help pay for street cleaning

By Annie Kane | 16 March 2015 | Add a Comment

The Chancellor of the Exchequer should hand over a portion of any increase in tobacco levies to help local councils pay for the cost of clearing cigarette-related litter, says the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee in a report on litter and fly-tipping published on Saturday (14 March).

The ‘Litter and fly-tipping in England: Seventh Report of Session 2014–15’, developed from a range of findings and recommendations put forward in three evidence sessions held over the past few months, outlines that litter levels in England have ‘hardly improved’ in the last 12 years, costing the taxpayer between £717 and £850 million each year to clean up.

The committee heard evidence from a range of stakeholders last year that fast food litter and fly-tipping had both increased by 20 per cent in the previous year, with chewing gum and smokers’ materials being the two most commonly-littered items.

As such, the CLG Committee has put forward a range of recommendations to help reduce the amount of litter arising and increase public awareness of the cost of littering.

Report recommendations

The report reads: ‘England is a litter-ridden country compared to most of Europe, North America and Japan. Levels of litter in England have hardly improved in the past 12 years and the best estimates are that litter costs the taxpayer between £717 and £850 million a year to clear up. Change is needed…

‘The failure to make a noticeable improvement in litter levels in the last 12 years points to a lack of vigour, if not complacency, within government over the past decade. There is a division of responsibilities between departments which, as it currently operates, creates problems for industry and volunteer groups and has neither reduced litter levels nor stopped the rise in fly-tipping.’

The CLG Committee highlighted that to join up thinking in reducing litter in England, government should create a national litter strategy for England, with a clear framework for action, underpinned with a coordinating role for local councils within their respective areas.

It noted that the government-funded anti-litter campaigning body Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) publishes an annual snapshot of incidences of litter across England through its ‘Local Environmental Quality Survey of England’, which should be ‘continued to inform policy making’. However, the committee highlighted that from next month, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will no longer fund Keep Britain Tidy – which KBT has said throws some doubt over whether the survey will continue.

As such, the committee argued that there is a need for ‘more and better data’ on litter to help gain a clearer idea of the litter problem in England. This, it argued could be gathered through a national survey, which would count the number of examples of each type of litter, to enable ‘better assessment of the cost of clearing litter’. In addition, the committee said there should be some assessment of population densities and how they relate to litter to help local councils to ‘more accurately target their litter collection activities’.

Touching on the fact that smoking material is one of the most littered items in England, the committee recommended that a portion of tobacco levies (placed on cigarettes due to their ‘lethal effects on health’) should be ‘hypothecated and provided to local councils to pay for the cost of clearing cigarette-related litter’.

It also recommended that the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association offer portable ashtrays or ‘mini bins’, free of charge, at the point of sale to all who purchase cigarettes. However, it warned that if the tobacco industry works with local authorities to reduce cigarette-related litter, ‘none of these activities should indicate support for the industry, nor should the industry be allowed to publicise their contribution to a joint project or use it to promote tobacco consumption’.

Other recommendations for government included:

ensuring the chewing gum industry makes a larger contribution to the costs of removing gum and staining and issues larger notices about not littering on all its packaging, wrappers and adverts (and for the committee to consider setting a tax on chewing gum if the industry does not do so);
bringing forward a legal obligation for all shops, restaurants and retail food outlets to keep the perimeters of their premises free from litter;
increasing the maximum fine that can be issued under fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for littering and encouraging local authorities to make greater use of FPNs;
introducing a national FPN for lower-scale incidents of fly-tipping, which would require the lower standard of proof required for a civil penalty;
introducing legislation providing for the seizure of vehicles involved in fly-tipping offences and enabling all local authorities in England to impose penalties on the owner of a vehicle from which litter is dropped;
encouraging councils to ‘think through their approach to bin types, location and strategy on bins for litter’, for example, introducing compacting bins in areas of high footfall or providing more recycling on-the-go facilities; and
having a national litter clean-up day in England day as a way of encouraging and engendering a big push towards a cleaner England (this has already been announced by government and there will be a Community Clean-up Day on 21 March).

‘Government and industry need to get together to tackle the endemic litter problem’

Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee, commented: “Litter is a blight on many of our communities, and the public are rightly disgusted when they see discarded fast-food packaging, cigarettes, and chewing gum strewn across our streets. Litter levels have remained largely static over the last 12 years, with councils spending hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money fighting a losing battle.

“Government and industry need to get together to tackle the endemic litter problem. Handing a portion of tobacco levies to local councils to help pay for the cost of clearing cigarette litter would show government is serious about getting tough on litter.”

Responding to the report, Giles Roca, Director General of the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association, said: “We are pleased that the committee has recognised the work that the tobacco industry does in the UK to address the issue of smoking-related litter and also that councils are free to work with the industry to deliver such change… Eighty per cent of the cost of tobacco is tax, or some £12 billion a year, and it is a matter for the Treasury how it allocates such funds.

“However, simply using such resources to plug funding shortfalls in local government budgets will not address the root cause of the litter problem. This has to be about long-term behaviour change and personal responsibility. That’s why the industry has supported such measures over the years, including the distribution of free portable ashtrays to smokers.”

Betts also touched on the need for behaviour change, saying: “While government and industry must play their part, in the end it is individuals who litter and fly-tip their unwanted goods, and it is their behaviour which needs to change... Litter campaigns also have a role, and we urge people to get involved in community clean-up days in their area next weekend [21 March]."

The CLG committee report and recommendations have been welcomed by the Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA), which also gave evidence in the inquiry, with Executive Director Martin Kersh stating: “The select committee has firmly put the emphasis on changing the behaviour of those who drop litter and are taking on board the proposal we made that fixed penalty notices be increased and local authorities encouraged to enforce them. We had asked that fine revenue not be seen as purely a money-making exercise but rather as a means of providing funds to increase the number of enforcement officers…

“Overall we sensed the inquiry took notice of our belief that the industry, waste management, local authorities and litter groups can and are willing to work together to make an impact on the main priority of changing the behaviour of those who litter.”

Steve Lee, Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM, commented': Steve Lee said: “Our management of local environmental quality is under pressure and clear proposals for action from this committee are welcome. The suggestion by the committee – in advance of the 2015 Budget Statement – that an element of any increase in tobacco duty should be ear-marked for councils’ street cleansing is a big step.

“The committee has recognised the importance of shifting the cost of litter clean-up away from cash-strapped councils to the brands whose products contribute to litter and impair local environmental quality. We therefore await the budget statement with particular interest. CIWM also welcomes the call for positive steps to be taken by chewing gum manufacturers and the recommendation for a levy to pay for gum removal to be introduced if there is no progress within 12 months."

Read the ‘Litter and fly-tipping in England: Seventh Report of Session 2014–15’.