Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding the Government has provided to local authorities to help tackle high levels of toxic waste in each of the last five years.

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 places a duty on local authorities to provide waste collection and disposal services. The Act also places a duty of care on all waste holders (including local authorities) to ensure the safe disposal or recycling of waste they collect and manage.

In recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities such as waste management, un-ringfenced funding from the Government is provided. The Local Government Finance Settlement has provided £54.1 billion in 2022/23 for local government in England, an increase of up to £3.7 billion on 2021/22. This comes on top of increases in Core Spending Power at £49 billion in 2020/21.

Businesses, meanwhile, usually have to pay for services to collect and dispose of the waste they generate.