Steve Aiken
South Antrim · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for his statement. Minister, as well as the move to reduce the cost to the Assembly of vacant non-domestic properties and to increase liability so that we will not have so many vacant properties, you will be aware of the Dilapidation Bill and of the conversations that have been taking place in Wales and Scotland about…”
“Instead, that most dysfunctional Department, under the most inept Sinn Féin Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a series of grossly over-superannuated permanent secretaries, gave the money back.”
“We know that her Department spends more on legal cases, fighting judicial reviews and being chastised by judges for legal ineptitude and on vesting land and ripping out hedges and fencing and then trying to unvest it and paying even more money to put back the fences and hedges that it took out.”
“We can hardly blame the current permanent secretary, as she has just taken up her post, but, surely, her predecessors must bear some accountability or responsibility, especially considering the senior civil servants' salary scale of between £146,000 and £163,000, with, of course, their taxpayer-funded pension contribution of 34·2% — £218,…”
“It must be said that £181·3 million is a lot of taxpayers' hard-earned money. It is money that is raised from local commuters, vehicle owners, farmers, local businesses, logistics companies and, above all, our constituents — those vital people whom we are elected to represent.”
“The Minister will be aware that, under the public appointments guide published by the Executive Office, it is clear that she is supposed to take independent advice before appointing board members. What independent advice did she receive, particularly about the board members selected?”
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“I thank the Minister for his reply. He has not had the meeting, so he will, obviously, not be aware that we have some concerns about the process in relation to Straid Primary School. The timings and commitments that were given previously by the EA to elected representatives in the area are not being met. Indeed, there is considerable concern in the community, as well as amongst elected representatives, about the approach going forward. Will he look urgently at the situation?”
“Does the Member agree that it would be very useful if we had a common reporting standard across all government in Northern Ireland, including Departments and, indeed, arm's-length bodies?”
“<BR /> <BR />I cannot conclude my remarks on behalf of the Committee without referencing the importance of providing clarity and certainty to victims in respect of the victims’ payments scheme. I note the Minister's remarks about the £19 million. However, I hope that, as part of that process, the Department, with its responsibility for strategic finance, will come to a better understanding of the related need and thereby narrow the size of the liability associated with that vital victims’ scheme. <BR /> <BR />In tomorrow’s debate, when I have a little more time, I may address some of the detailed feedback received from the other Statutory Committees. In the meantime and on behalf of the Committee for Finance, I endorse the Supply resolution motion.”
“That has deprived Departments of a necessary degree of clarity and certainty in respect of their spending. <BR /> <BR />The Estimates also include funding for a number of post-COVID recovery measures that we have discussed before but are, nonetheless, of undeniable importance as the economy recovers from the pandemic. I think in particular of the rates holiday, the extension of the localised restrictions support scheme (LRSS) payments into May and, indeed, the much-anticipated high street voucher scheme. I think that we in our Committee and, indeed, the Members of the Assembly would like to have some detail and clarity of when that is due and how it will be accounted for.”
“<BR /> <BR />Although it is important to ensure that all of our money gets spent appropriately and none gets returned unnecessarily, I am a little concerned in respect of the capital surge in March. I hope that other Departments are not disregarding the Finance Department’s advice and settling up with capital contractors at the eleventh hour of the financial year. That is a risky strategy that might one day lead to unspent capital money. <BR /> <BR />For 2021-22, I refer yet again to the failure of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to provide the necessary clarity on the New Decade, New Approach and confidence-and-supply funding, even though it is clear that HM Treasury has largely approved it. This has led to considerable related sums in the Main Estimates, significant amounts, being recorded as "headroom".”
“For now, I will address the Supply resolution and the Main Estimates. <BR /> <BR />It is worth beginning by mentioning again that 2020-21 was a very unusual year. If we look at the resource and capital spends for the last month of that financial year, we can see that they are very significant, with nearly £2·5 billion of resource and over £600 million of capital all spent in the month of March. I expect that we will hear more about the provisional out-turn at June monitoring, but it appears that Departments have undertaken a mammoth expenditure task successfully. It also appears that only a limited amount of financial transactions capital (FTC) will go back to Westminster, which, of course, we will all welcome.”
“The reason that I ask this now is that my understanding is that it possibly is not going to happen in the current mandate. I can see no good reason for that, but I await with interest the Minister's clarification of what he is doing to expedite the legislative process whereby we can put the independent fiscal council on a statutory basis in this mandate. Will the Minister indicate whether the current fiscal council will indeed produce an assessment of the Executive's revenue streams, their spending proposals and the sustainability of their finances and whether that will happen this year? <BR /> <BR />Mr Deputy Speaker, in tomorrow's debate, I will, with your indulgence, address the issues of consultation on the public expenditure proposals and speak briefly about accelerated passage for the Budget (No. 2) Bill.”
“I find that, the limited understanding of these important matters by Members of the House, to be the most unsatisfactory aspect of the process. <BR /> <BR />What are we to do about that? I had hoped that the independent fiscal council would be a good beginning to the process of unpicking this over-complex Budget process, providing further, much-needed transparency and accountability. I had hoped that an independent fiscal council with the necessary functionality, discretion, powers, independence, competence, credibility and engagement with the Assembly would facilitate improved understanding and ownership of the complexities of the Budget process. Perhaps, Minister, in your response today, you will advise the House on the timing of the introduction of the legislation for the establishment of that independent fiscal council.”
“Let us not forget the monitoring rounds, scheduled and ad hoc, where money seems to appear from nowhere and the explanations seem to leave the Committee confused. I know that other Committees are similarly confused. <BR /> <BR />In recent evidence from officials, the Committee also noted that, in the votes that we will have today and tomorrow, the Assembly will not vote on capital. Nor does it appear that it will it vote on much of the spending of non-departmental public bodies. Committee members were surprised to learn that all of that may account for around 25% of the Executive’s spending. That should be a significant concern for every Member. I expect that many Members may be surprised to hear what I have just said.”
“I thank the Minister for his opening remarks on the Supply resolution for the Main Estimates. The Minister’s officials have kindly provided written and oral explanations of the Estimates at a number of Finance Committee meetings. On behalf of the Committee, I thank the Minister for that and express the hope that those useful engagements will continue in a spirit of cooperation in what is left of the current mandate. <BR /> <BR />Notwithstanding the foregoing, we have lost count of the number of times that we have indicated the Committee’s dissatisfaction with the Budget process. We refer, of course, to the opaqueness of the Estimates documents; the confusing and impenetrable accountant's terminology; and the debates that are scheduled after the decisions have been taken and usually do not deal with budgetary matters anyway.”
“Those are the people to whom Trevor Ringland will reach out, and we need to support that as well. I look forward, as time goes on and as COVID restrictions are released, to being able to get back to the United States and pass that positive message on, because Northern Ireland is a great place to do business. We in the Ulster Unionist Party thank Trevor Ringland for what he is about to do and wish him very well.”
“That is a very positive development for everybody here in Northern Ireland, and we should be seeking to support that. <BR /> <BR />There are some other issues that we need to address. I know about the great work that the Northern Ireland bureau has done, but, when you go to the United States, you sometimes think that you are walking into a parallel universe. I have another declaration of interest: two thirds of my family are from the United States, but they are not from Washington or New York. They come from middle America: from Georgia, Tennessee and areas like that. Those people do not see Northern Ireland in the way that it has been presented many times in New York and Washington; they see Northern Ireland as a great place to do business or to come and visit and a great place that has opportunity.”
“Indeed, it will be welcomed by everybody in Northern Ireland, particularly amongst the Northern Ireland business community, because he has strong links to businesses and a great understanding of the Northern Ireland business landscape. He will be in the United States four to six times a year representing those views across the United States, not just inside the Beltway but in other areas. That is a great opportunity for us, and we should be working to support it. Indeed, the fact that we have a Northern Ireland envoy sends a very strong message to the United States about the interest that our country — the United Kingdom — has in fostering relationships with the United States of America. Our nation has decided to send an envoy there.”
“I thank Mr Sheehan for bringing this matter to the Assembly today but not necessarily for the manner in which he has done so. <BR /> <BR />First of all, I make a declaration of interest: Trevor Ringland and I served for a long time on the board of the British-Irish Association. I have never met anybody who is better at putting forward a good case for Northern Ireland and, indeed, at fostering not just North/South but east-west relationships. He has been absolutely outstanding, whether working with the International Fund for Ireland or for Co-operation Ireland or in a vast raft of activities in representing all the communities in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />I have seen him in Washington. I have seen what he has done. The fact that he will be there as an envoy representing Northern Ireland should be welcomed by everybody in the Assembly.”
“I welcome what has happened with the PPS, as I do the apologies from the Police Service of Northern Ireland — both are well overdue — but we as an Assembly need to reflect and make sure that we send a strong message about how much we support our ethnic minority communities and let them know what a valued part of Northern Ireland's society they are.”
“<BR /> <BR />I make this call to the Justice Minister: Northern Ireland needs to have dedicated hate crime legislation. As private Members, we probably do not have the time to get it across the line now, but I call on the Justice Minister to try to get hate crime legislation on the statute book as quickly as we can. We need to send a strong message from the Assembly to all our ethnic minority communities that we support and value them and do not see them as being different in any way. The rules and regulations should apply equally across the board.”
“They have come here, but, in many respects, they feel that the justice and policing systems here are not of the standard that they were led to expect and not of the standard that other people in Northern Ireland expect to be shown to them. <BR /> <BR />We have heard many comments from Members about what has happened at other events in Northern Ireland, and we know the issues around those. I know the palpable anger that was felt by members of our ethnic minority community when they saw what happened at the Bobby Storey funeral and other issues. Why were they being treated significantly differently? What was the issue? Were they seen as being an easy touch, or did policing feel that it could put them in the position of making them again feel under threat or as though they were a concern?”
“I add my thanks to those already made to Mr Carroll for bringing the Matter of the Day to the House. I declare an interest as the chair of the all-party group on ethnic minorities. Anybody who has seen what has happened over the Black Lives Matter protests and what has been happening in Northern Ireland will know the degree to which members of our much-valued ethnic minority community will feel that they have been undermined. There seems to be one law for them and another for everybody else. The anger and frustration in that community are palpable, but there is another significant issue. Many of those people come from societies that are not as open as ours, and where trust in policing and the justice system is, to say the least, minimal.”
“Sorry, my intervention is very limited. <BR /> <BR />Apologies, Minister, but I have to chair another meeting. It means no disrespect to you that I am heading off. I am sure that my able Deputy Chair will do what is required. I am not sure whether he will do it using a 'Star Wars' theme.”
“Minister, you and the Economy Minister have asked Sir Peter Kendall to do a review of agribusiness in Northern Ireland. Sir Peter Kendall was clear that this is not about a zero-sum option for agriculture but about being smarter. Will the Minister and whoever will be the new Economy Minister commit to taking the recommendations and implementing them in full?”
“For clarity, will you add David Trimble to that?”
“Our waiting times are atrocious; we heard more about them in the media this morning. There are many causes for the situation that we are in, but a decade of underinvestment and poor political leadership are the two key reasons that stick in my mind. People are coming to harm — real harm. I welcome the efforts of the Health Minister and congratulate him on how he has got the entire HSC family, including senior clinicians, breaking down old barriers and obstacles. However, making a lasting impact will require more than one year's breathing space. The entire Executive, backed by the Assembly, as it has said it would time and time again, need to realise that only so much can happen with single-year, non-recurrent funding. Our health workers bravely tackled the worst of the COVID pandemic, so let us now help them to tackle the waiting lists.”
“<BR /> <BR />Although the Committee for Finance has not formally considered the motion, I think that I am correct in saying that, on balance, it would give it its cautious support. <BR /> <BR />I will say a few words in my capacity as the Ulster Unionist finance spokesman. Were it not for the additional in-year and carry-over of COVID funding, there is no doubt that the tone of the debate would be very different. The UK Government, directly through the job retention scheme and indirectly through additional allocations to the Northern Ireland Executive, have contributed in the region of £3·8 billion to our efforts to tackle the pandemic. That demonstrates clearly, once again, the benefits of Northern Ireland remaining a constituent nation of the United Kingdom. <BR /> <BR />It would be remiss of me not to revisit the Health budget.”
“However, the Committee and, indeed, the rest of the Assembly wait with keen interest to see how the high street voucher scheme and related schemes will be rolled out. <BR /> <BR />The subject of the debate is the 2021-22 Budget. However, we all know that coming round the corner is another challenging HM Treasury spending review. We all suspect that that may prove difficult for the Northern Ireland block. I ask the Minister whether the Department is preparing for that and urging other parts of the Executive to consider cost reductions and efficiency measures for 2022-23 that might reduce our cost base. I think particularly about the disposal of underutilised office space and the hard charging of Departments for leasehold costs.”
“Will the Minister confirm whether that is indeed the case? <BR /> <BR />After all that, it would be remiss of me not to commend the many measures brought forward by the Executive to manage the pandemic and boost the economy as we all recover from a significant community and national trauma. On behalf of the Committee, I record our appreciation of the multiple business support packages, including the rates holiday, the localised restrictions support scheme (LRSS) and the other retail, hospitality and tourism grants provided by the Minister's Department through Land and Property Services (LPS) and the Department for the Economy. I hope that those, coupled with the Job Start scheme, will make a real and measurable difference to hard-pressed businesses and families as lockdown ends and we hopefully confine it to history.”
“The Minister has been talking about top-slicing, but the alternative of top-slicing Departments to the tune of many tens of millions of pounds each would, quite frankly, be completely untenable. <BR /> <BR />With the other undetermined financial matters, can the Minister advise on the balance of the £200 million New Deal for Northern Ireland funding? It was understood that the UK Government were perhaps considering revising the governance arrangements for that. Will the Minister therefore advise whether he expects Departments to enjoy enhanced financial visibility in respect of related allocations from HM Treasury? <BR /> <BR />When the Minister last provided a statement, he indicated that he hoped that, if Departments kept to their spending commitments, there would be a limited loss of funding from the Northern Ireland block for 2020-21.”
“Perhaps the Minister, in his response, will address all those areas of uncertainty in the 2021-22 spending programme, particularly in respect of victims. Will he update the House on the issues with the Secretary of State and indicate where the hold-up lies?”
“<BR /> <BR />Mr Speaker, I do not mind telling you that multiple spending rounds, though extremely welcome to the recipient Departments, are hard to track. The failure of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to sign off on those important allocations has also served to deny the Assembly certainty and clarity on those significant sums. The Department has advised that a similar situation applies to the £360 million of New Decade, New Approach and confidence-and-supply funding. I understand that, although that money is not yet confirmed, it is expected to be paid and thus appears in the Main Estimates as departmental headroom. Regrettably, the £19 million of payments to victims is also treated as headroom, rather than confirmed expenditure, in the Estimates.”
“In the meantime, we might question the effectiveness of our existing approach, with its limited granularity, occasional evasions and obfuscations from Departments and, let us be frank, the impenetrable nature of much of the documentation that is provided to us. <BR /> <BR />For now, I turn to the subject matter of the motion, namely the spending programme for 2021-22. The documentation mentioned in the motion and laid on 19 May indicates a £13 billion resource budget and around £1·8 billion in capital. It is understood that the new resource baseline is, however, just under £12 billion. Members are aware that a further £687·4 million was to be allocated in in-year monitoring, plus the additional COVID resource allocation that was announced in a written statement last week.”
“However, there may be some merit in considering streamlining the process and removing any possible duplication, without, of course, truncating the Assembly's necessary and proper consideration of the Budget. <BR /> <BR />I know that the Minister is sincere in his desire to see enhanced Assembly scrutiny. I know also that, for that reason, he has established the interim fiscal council. On another day, the Committee may elect to bring to the House a debate of its own on that subject. Perhaps we might then determine the views of the House on how we can establish an independent fiscal council with the functionality, discretion, powers, independence, competence, credibility and engagement with the Assembly to facilitate improved understanding and ownership of the complexities of the Budget process.”
“Thank you very much indeed, Minister, for your remarks. <BR /> <BR />I thank the Minister for his opening remarks and for bringing the debate to the Assembly today, even though no notice of the debate was provided in his recent and regular correspondence with the Committee for Finance. Although Members will welcome enhanced scrutiny and greater transparency and even an extra opportunity to question the Minister a little today, I suspect that some of us may struggle to make remarks that differ significantly from those that we will make in the Supply resolution and Budget Bill debates that, I suspect, will take place in only two weeks' time. I understand that this debate serves a different function from the others.”
“It is down to all parties, and we must ask ourselves this fundamental question: are the Department for the Economy, the Department for Infrastructure and the Executive Office currently up to the task? We need to make sure that they are, and, as an Assembly, we need to hold them to account.”
“We should be asking ourselves this question: are the Department for the Economy, the Department for Infrastructure and the Executive Office up to the challenges to make sure that we move towards a green recovery and net zero carbon by 2050? <BR /> <BR />Finally, as I draw my remarks to an end, this is also about how we get out of COVID-19. At this stage, we should all pay our greatest respects to the health workers of Northern Ireland, who have done such a fantastic job to get us to the point at which we now look positively to the future. <BR /> <BR />The message with which I want to end my remarks is that, if we are to achieve this, we must have a fully joined-up approach across the Government.”
“If you look across the Irish Sea, you will see that everywhere in English, Welsh and Scottish waters seems to be festooned by offshore wind farms. In the waters off Northern Ireland and, indeed, the Republic of Ireland, there are very few. At the moment, it is beginning to look like we are being left behind. We must make sure that Northern Ireland is part of the all-islands renewable energy market, and that will have to involve a significant use of offshore wind. <BR /> <BR />We have talked a lot about the hydrogen economy and how it links in. However, to make it work, we have to incentivise it. One of the problems in Northern Ireland is the complete lack of joined-up government.”
“We also need to be able to set incentives for Northern Ireland businesses, particularly those in the construction sector, to get involved in the major housing projects that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive will, I hope, be working on. Those projects will help us move towards net zero carbon. <BR /> <BR />We heard today from the Infrastructure Minister, and significant areas of infrastructure will need to be updated to secure net zero. We heard about transport, but one of the things about being on an island is that we also need to consider how we can incentivise offshore energy and offshore wind farms that meet the requirement in Northern Ireland. It is regrettable that, in the past, significant opportunities for offshore wind farms were not taken.”
“Indeed, as pointed out by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), many other areas of our economy, including small and medium enterprises, will need support to do that. <BR /> <BR />As other contributors said, this also represents a significant opportunity. In particular, we have the ability to transform our housing stock so that it not only gets closer to Passivhaus level but becomes self-generating to as large a degree as possible. We have seen what has happened across the rest of Europe, particularly the Netherlands and Denmark, which are models of what Northern Ireland should be looking to achieve. However, that requires significant changes to our planning processes. We have to ensure that we incentivise making housing much more efficient so that we make it easy to get to that point.”
“My party has real concerns about the System Operator for Northern Ireland (SONI) and Northern Ireland Electricity Energy (NIE Energy), or should I say Eirgrid and the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), and their approach to supporting infrastructure in Northern Ireland. Indeed, there is also concern about whether the Department for the Economy is up for the task of transforming our electrical grid system and the market to allow us get to net zero carbon by 2050. <BR /> <BR />As we move towards the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), Northern Ireland needs to address some significant issues. We are pleased to see the issues around just transition. It is clear that our agribusiness, particularly agriculture and farmers, will need support as they move towards net zero carbon by 2050.”
“The Ulster Unionist Party supports the motion. How could anybody in the Assembly not support the motion and its sentiments? Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, and I am glad to see so many of the Ulster Unionist Party's policies being brought into it. <BR /> <BR />There are some significant issues that we need to address, particularly in Northern Ireland. There are some decisions that we have to make, and those decisions have to be made now. In particular, when we move towards an all-electric economy, we need to sort out issues in our grid system and our electricity supply system. Over time, other Members have addressed this issue several times.”
“I thank the Minister for her reply. Recently, at the Finance Committee, we discussed Northern Ireland Water and its future funding mechanisms; indeed, having heard the Minister's previous answers to the Assembly, one realises that around £1·5 billion is needed, even as an interim figure, to meet Belfast's waste water requirements, never mind those of the rest of Northern Ireland. Bearing that in mind, is the Minister in favour of mutualisation, bringing in water charges or some other hybrid model? Frankly, the situation is unsustainable. Northern Ireland Water will not be able to continue as it is.”
“Thank you very much indeed for giving way, Minister, and for your remarks as well. This is an issue that we have heard a lot about from the Agriculture Minister as well. Could this not be seen as a cross-cutting issue and therefore an issue for the Northern Ireland Executive? Perhaps it is a decision that the Northern Ireland Executive, as well as you, should be pushing for in order to get a speedy resolution to where we are at at the moment?”
“Why are we, as an Assembly, continuing to authorise spending on exorbitant legal costs for a project that, by any proper analysis, is doomed to failure? Those are the key questions. It is well beyond time that the Hightown incinerator project is finally refused and that the people of my constituency and beyond are saved from that monumental and colossal failure.”
“<BR /> <BR />I could say more on the environmental impacts of toxin release, the impact on the visual landscape of a 95-metre-high chimney dominating the Belfast hills, the increase in traffic on totally inadequate roads, the devastating impact on property values or just the purely ludicrous idea of putting a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant and energy-from-waste incinerator three quarters of the way up a mountain with no business plan. It is perhaps not coincidental that none of those plants has been approved in the UK over the past five years. I will leave it at that, however. <BR /> <BR />My questions to the Minister for Infrastructure are these: why are we continuing to inflict this environmental Ponzi scheme on the people of both my constituency and hers?”
“Look at the timeline. Planning was applied for in March 2014. In 2015, the then SDLP Minister refused the project. During the interregnum after the Assembly fell in 2017, the Department for Infrastructure permanent secretary decided to approve it. The case was then judicially reviewed in the High Court in 2018, and the Department lost. Despite all of that, in 2019, Arc21 again attempted to achieve planning approval. Now, in 2021, we await due process to be gone through before the Minister, an MLA for our adjacent constituency, makes the decision.”
“The sorry tale of how their heroic actions for the community have been thwarted by officialdom will no doubt be told by others today.”
“<BR /> <BR />None of it makes any sense unless, of course, the project is simply a subsidy-mining effort, akin not only to the RHI debacle but, in fact, to an "RHI2" scheme for which we will all have to pay. I then discovered that my concerns were widely felt throughout the community, and every political party, although not every political representative within those parties, was against the scheme. <BR /> <BR />I pay tribute to Colin Buick, Charlie Thompson and all of the local community involved in No-ARC21, who took the very courageous decision to challenge Arc21 and the Department for Infrastructure in the courts. Although the odds were stacked against them, they won.”
“With new interconnections, increased peaking and demand-led units, unless someone is paid or legislated against to drop out of generating, there is no obvious market for the energy that could come from Hightown, even if the company had a grid connection. <BR /> <BR />I enquired what Arc21 planned to do about traffic amelioration around the site to reduce the already chronic infrastructure problems around Mallusk and Hightown. Members can imagine my further surprise and concern when I was informed that there were no plans to upgrade the roads from Sandyknowes roundabout as it would add too much to the cost of the project. Bear in mind that it was £0·25 billion project that was planned to last for at least 35 years. By that stage, the lack of detail and the assumptions behind the company's case astounded me.”
“That in 2016-17 such open-ended commitments were made, especially after the RHI debacle, which exposed the taxpayer to longer-term, open-ended commitments, should, I suppose, not come as any surprise to the Assembly. <BR /> <BR />I asked Arc21 what the business case was. I was told that I would be informed once planning approval had been given. I was surprised, to say the least, that a £240 million project did not have even an outline business case before planning approval was sought. Moreover, the company did not have a grid connection. Anyone with even a passing understanding of the Northern Ireland generating capacity auction knows that the market for supply is currently saturated.”
“<BR /> <BR />Curiously, many of those projects' contracts have been limited to 25 years, because that is deemed to be the longest time possible for such an open-ended commitment to be made by ratepayers and regional taxpayers, and, in engineering terms, most power plants will need replacing or major refurbishment after a quarter of a century of operation. However, Arc21 seeks to tie Northern Ireland ratepayers to a contract for 35 years, which will potentially cost about £2 billion at 2020 prices, despite increasing waste recycling rates and environmental standards, and despite the fact that ample incineration capacity is already available. To be fair, a previous DUP Agriculture Minister had written to Arc21 to say that she would ask Executive colleagues to help to supply the delta between subsidy costs if there were a shortfall.”
“<BR /> <BR />Many Members will be aware that there has been a catalogue of complaints by public authorities across the United Kingdom, in Europe and beyond about the costs of those schemes. The schemes resort to PFIs or novel forms of funding, which have left many public authorities to cross-subsidise the schemes and, in some cases, have led to near-bankruptcy or worse. The stories of the public-good schemes in Copenhagen, Brighton, Baltimore and elsewhere that have gone bad are, unfortunately, the norm, even when the schemes have grid connections, agreed electricity prices and a contract agreement to pay for waste shortfalls.”
“There was a strong implication that I should get behind the scheme as it had full support in my council and beyond. <BR /> <BR />Knowing from my previous experience that the costs of building the plant for a £240 million project would be significant, I thought it appropriate to ask what business case the company proposed. I asked that, because such plants require a considerable subsidy to run. They are not self-financing. They require a fixed long-term energy price, a gate fee per metric ton of waste processed, which has to be lower than any landfill or recycling tax, and a minimum value per tonnage delivered to the plant. If that is not forthcoming, a compensation package has to be available for the operator and the operating authority over the lifetime of the plant to ensure continued viability.”