Defra consults on future WRAP funding

By Susanna Prouse | 7 May 2013 | Add a Comment

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has called on stakeholders and partners to submit their views regarding future funding for the Waste & Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP) activities.

Defra has stated that in order for the government to ‘succeed in reducing the current budget deficit,’ its review of funding for WRAP is ‘necessary as a contribution to wider savings’.

It is hoped the review will ‘identify whether the WRAP delivery model continues to be the most appropriate way to deliver policy interventions in support of waste reduction and resource efficiency… and to secure best value for public money’.

‘Sudden withdrawal’ of funding ‘could cause difficulties’

In January 2013, Defra announced it was to cut WRAP’s 2013/14 budget by 11 per cent, down to to £26 million from £56 million in 2009/10. According to the government department, the cut was needed to reduce around £661 million from its budget by 2014/15, as specified in the 2010 Spending Review settlement.

Defra has conceded that further reductions in funding could negatively impact WRAP’s activities. The consultation document reads: ‘We fully recognise that Defra currently provides a substantial proportion (albeit now less than 50 per cent) of WRAP's funding, and that any sudden withdrawal of that funding could therefore cause difficulties.

‘As a responsible partner we are therefore keen to ensure that we fully understand the impact that any further reduction in Defra funding might have on WRAP, and with that in mind we are involving WRAP closely in this review. We are particularly keen to support WRAP in making the transition to whatever future business model it chooses.'

Defra adds that it ‘recognise[s] that any reduction in Defra funding could result in the loss of synergies between some of WRAP's activities, which could have a knock-on effect on WRAP's activities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are therefore engaging the devolved administrations in this review.’

Writing on twitter, Marks & Spencer’s Head of Sustainable Business, Mike Barry, said that future funding for WRAP was “critical if we are to build a circular economy”.

Consultation Details

In thinking how to prioritise for future years Defra has said it is making a couple of ‘key assumptions’. These include the government only intervening ‘where it is absolutely necessary i.e. where there is a true market failure’ and, when it does intervene, ensuring the ‘best value for taxpayers’ money’.

According to Defra, for 2013/14 the ‘strategic steer’ for WRAP included the following priorities:

food waste prevention;

waste prevention in non-food products (home improvement, energy related and clothing);

promoting resource efficiency in the construction sector (including water);

increasing food waste collection;

sustainable procurement;

product sustainability;

a number of activities related to water efficiency; and

helping to strengthen our evidence base

Following this, the consultation calls for comments from stakeholders regarding the need for government funded waste reduction activities, as well as views on which of the WRAP activities are the ‘most valuable’ and which are a ‘lower priority’.

Key questions outlined in the consultation document center around:

important market failures;

business barriers to the take-up of cost effective efficiency measures;

the possibility of a private sector funded approach;

the best way to deliver WRAP activites;

which organisations are best to deliver activities;

the role Defra should fund WRAP to play; and

the financial contribution benefiters could make.

Defra stated that its decisions will be guided by the ‘waste hierarchy’, giving top priority to waste prevention, followed by reuse, recycling, other types of recovery (including energy recovery), and last of all disposal.

The consultation is set to close on 24 May.

Read the ‘Opportunity to comment on Defra’s funding review for WRAP’ consultation.