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The government has defended its decision to cut the budget of Wrap, the body charged with reducing packaging, on the grounds that established schemes had less need for subsidy.

Environment minister Joan Ruddock told a House of Lords waste reduction enquiry today (13 May) that companies "were increasingly coming into play" in areas where previous investment by Wrap, the Waste & Resources Action Programme, had helped to generate interest.

"Wrap has worked with local authorities and spent a lot of money on home composting equipment, for example, and as programmes develop there is no longer a need for subsidies," she said.

Ruddock also pointed to closed-loop recycling schemes and the recycling of PET and HDPE where Wrap had "helped bring new technology to market".

In the revised budget for 2008/9, Wrap received 30% less funding, £43.2m, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Wrap is due to publish its new business plan on 11 June.

Ruddock also said the government wanted to move away from specialist one-to-one advice to companies in favour of more general information through Business Link.

"We can't continue to provide single-business interface of waste schemes, but will continue to see specific work from Wrap to provide templates for firms to follow," she said.

However, the Lords expressed concerns that Business Link staff would not have sufficient specialist knowledge to provide information on waste reduction.

More details about the ongoing enquiry are available here.