Three-quarters of households should pay to have grass cuttings collected
- Councils resembling Richmond in London are charging as a lot as £84 a yr
Three-quarters of households should now pay if they need grass cuttings collected, it has emerged.
Figures have proven that 254 of the 314 councils in England cost to gather inexperienced waste – dubbed a ‘backyard tax’.
The proportion charging residents has soared lately from about two-thirds (62 per cent) in 2019 and fewer than half (48 per cent) in 2016.
Annual charges common £56 however a handful of councils cost as a lot as £100.
Some city halls make households pay for a backyard waste bin.
A lady mowing a backyard garden. Figures have proven that 254 of the 314 councils in England cost to gather inexperienced waste – dubbed a ‘backyard tax’ (inventory picture)
Richmond Upon Thames in south west London. Residents in Richmond are charged £84 a yr for backyard waste assortment (inventory picture)
Boston, in Lincolnshire, costs £40 to have a bin delivered, and £50 for backyard waste assortment. In Richmond, south-west London, backyard waste assortment prices £84 a yr and the bins for the service are £36, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The charges are on prime of council tax costs levied on all households to pay for companies resembling home waste assortment.
Almost all native authorities are planning to extend council tax by the utmost 4.99 per cent permitted in April in an try to lift more cash, regardless of receiving a £600million Government bailout. Six native authorities have gone bust since 2021 and 4 in ten are vulnerable to having to successfully declare chapter over the subsequent 5 years, consultants say.
Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg mentioned: ‘Badly-run councils try to squeeze cash out of individuals in each doable means.’ He added that they’re ‘now making an attempt to penalise individuals for gardening’. The former Cabinet minister mentioned: ‘It’s symptomatic of dysfunctional native governments, which at all times need more cash.’
Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg mentioned: ‘Badly-run councils try to squeeze cash out of individuals in each doable means’
Fellow Tory Sir John Redwood – native authorities minister underneath John Major – mentioned: ‘A lot of councils mismanage their funds in a dreadful means after which attempt to assume up all types of the way of charging individuals extra and elevating the taxes. Councils’ bills are uncontrolled.’
He added: ‘They are at all times pleading poverty and spending cash on issues nobody desires.’
A Local Government Association spokesman mentioned: ‘Public satisfaction with native waste companies stays very excessive. It needs to be for particular person councils with their residents to determine learn how to perform waste collections regionally and whether or not the prices of offering inexperienced waste assortment needs to be met by all taxpayers or simply people who use the extra service.’
