Environment

The rising rate of landfill tax could result in more waste being sent to landfill, unless the money raised is distributed to councils to invest in recycling and refuse facilities, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.

Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, announced in the 2007 Budget that landfill tax would increase by £8 per tonne for the next three years – doubling the 2007/8 rate of £24 – to help meet European landfill targets.

But the LGA said that local authorities could suffer from a £1.5bn funding gap, to be met through council tax, unless ministers "make good on their pledge of giving this money back to councils".

Paul Bettison, chairman of the LGA environment board, said: "Dumping rubbish in a hole in the ground isn't just bad for the environment, it threatens to hit the council taxpayer with a double whammy of costs from landfill tax and EU fines."

The LGA estimates that councils could be faced with EU fines – £150 for every tonne of rubbish dumped – totalling £200m by 2013.