The government has been accused of rowing back from promises to “get out of the way” and let the industry run its under-fire extended producer responsibility packaging tax.
Speaking at a conference in Birmingham yesterday, PackUK strategy director Esther Carter said it would be “multiple years” before powers were delegated to the producer-run organisation (PRO) that is set to be appointed in the next month.
Industry sources said the comments were in stark contrast to the promises by Defra and PackUK at another major packaging event held in October last year.
At the time, former Defra circular economy director Emma Bourne confirmed that Defra was pushing ahead with plans to hand over the vast majority of the function of PackUK to the PRO, while PackUK CEO Jeremy Blake compared himself to a “turkey voting for Christmas” as he admitted almost all of its powers would be swept up by the industry-run body.
However, Carter appeared to signal a very different strategy, while confirming that PackUK was on track to appoint the PRO in March,
“Over time, certain responsibilities that PackUK has been responsible for to date will be delegated for that PRO to lead whilst the ascual movement of money, or the sovereign functions will be retained,” she told delegates at the Packaging Innovations conference.
“The PRO will take on an increasing amount of responsibility and I would emphasise that this will happen as the result of increasing delegation across multiple years and under a very strict governance framework.”
Sources told The Grocer the language from PackUK was a “major change in tone” compared with its message in the autumn.
“This was as far as it gets from the remarks about turkeys voting for Christmas,” said one source.
PackUK is weighing up several bids to run the PRO, with a bid drawn up by the FDF and supported by powerful bodies including the BRC and Incpen having been widely regarded as the favourite.
However, it faces opposition from a bid led by Valpak, whose ‘PackFlow’ data calculations have been used as the most reliable source of evidence in the run-up to the EPR launch. It has been less critical of local authorities and less vocal about the need for ringfencing of the money raised than its rival.
A coalition of packaging schemes has also submitted a bid to run the PRO.
PackUK’s comments about the future of EPR governance come as it faces growing outrage over plans to reissue the bills for EPR, after it was revealed there was a huge shortfall identified in the money needed to fund local authority recycling for the first year of the scheme.
The Grocer revealed on Monday that Defra’s packaging tax body has warned companies of the shock move after calculations showed the money raised from the tax had fallen tens of millions short because of a higher than expected number of appeals.
However, Carter told the conference that as of yesterday PackUK had already invested more than £1bn for local authorities to invest in recycling facilities, adding: “It’s a huge moment in terms of circularity within the UK and EPR is a cornerstone.”
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