Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Anaerobic digestion tax hard to swallow
The redoubtable Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset Ian Liddell-Grainger warns Defra Secretary George Eustice of the risks of reversing major advances in climate change mitigation if anaerobic digestion plants are hit hard for business rates.
DEAR George
An old friend used to remark that no sooner does someone come up with a good idea than the Government decides to tax it. And there’s a lot of truth in that.
The observation came to mind this week when I read a somewhat alarming report about the potential effects of business rate increases on anaerobic digestion (AD) operators.
Those effects reaching out towards the point, apparently, where some could be forced out of business, so slender remain their margins.
Leaving aside the fact that the air is constantly ringing with the sounds of one sector or another complaining about unfair charges this does seem rather worrying, George.
Because if we stifle the AD industry in its infancy and put plants out of business that is going to impinge rather significantly on our ability to meet our net zero targets.
Speaking of which, it has not escaped my attention, either, that your department is having its feet held to the fire for failing so far to deliver firm plans for mitigating the effects of climate change.
And while it is widely feared that such plans as you do produce could involve a measure of further restriction on farmers’ normal practices it appears to me that when we have an agriculture-linked activity which is already flying a vibrant green flag we should be encouraging it to carry on doing so, not penalising it.
The AD sector has been through some rough times already. You will recall the public hoo-hah that erupted when the first plants were being set up, with the nimbies moaning about the likely malodorous nature of their activities.
There was never any presumption in favour of planning permission- as there should have been for a technology which offered so much.
And given the contribution AD is already making – a one per cent reduction in the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions every year, which is the equivalent of taking 2.3 million cars off the road – surely we should be encouraging further expansion of the sector rather than clobbering it with stonking great rates demands. Geese and golden eggs come to mind.
Let me remind you that from a somewhat hesitant start we now have 685 AD plants in the UK treating 46 million tonnes of organic waste a year and recycling it into biogas and biofertilisers.
That’s a pretty impressive achievement
– and given a fair wind that one per cent reduction could be cranked up to become six per cent by 2030. Which is not to be sneezed at.
On the other hand, start wielding the big taxation stick and we could undo years of hard work and dedication and destroy a sector whose impressive achievements have earned us widespread international admiration.
Yours ever
Ian
PS. Don’t forget those plans.