The government has taken the axe to millions of pounds worth of projects aimed at cutting food waste, despite a report last week claiming UK waste levels hit £12.5bn in 2012.
A spending review by Defra sets out a total of £10m cuts to industry body Wrap’s budget, including £3.6m on projects specifically targeting food waste.
Defra argued that retailers and the rest of the private sector should take on the work instead, although it admitted its cuts, first warned of in the summer but now outlined in detail, would leave Wrap’s funding threadbare.
They include “much reduced support to SMEs” and “much reduced funding” for the development of anaerobic digestion facilities, with Defra claiming the market for the technology was already almost established.
Waste and resource minister Dan Rogerson wrote to the industry explaining Defra would be reducing its activities from April. “We have been reassessing Defra’s activities on waste management to focus on the essentials that only government can and must do,” he said. “From April 2014, we will be stepping back in areas where businesses are better placed to act and there is no clear market failure.”
In the review, Defra admitted that if they had been any deeper, the cuts could have killed Wrap. “Heavier cuts than those proposed were judged to have increased the risk that other funders and stakeholders would lose confidence in Wrap and could likely threaten Wrap’s continuing existence,” it said.
Read Defra’s review of Wrap’s funding (PDF).
No comments yet