22 minute read
Economy
Spring Statement: Key points at a glance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled the contents of his Spring Statement in the House of Commons at the end of March. He had been under pressure to help households with the cost of living squeeze, with prices rising 6.2% in the 12 months to February - the fastest for 30 years.
The chancellor announced he would cut
fuel duty, raise the threshold at which people start paying National Insurance, and pledged to cut the basic rate of income tax before the next general election.
Here is a summary of the main points:
State of the economy and public finances
• The UK economy is forecast to grow by 3.8% this year, according to the Office for Budget
Responsibility, a sharp cut from its previous prediction of 6.0% • The economy is then forecast to grow by 1.8% in 2023, 2.1% in 2024, 1.8% in 2025 and 1.7% in 2026 • The annual inflation rate was 6.2% in February, and is likely to average 7.4% for the rest of this year, but with a peak of 8.7% in the final quarter of 2022 • The unemployment rate is now predicted to be lower over the next few years than in the OBR’s previous forecast in October • Debt as a percentage of GDP is expected to fall from 83.5% of GDP in 2022/23 to 79.8% in 2026/27 • The government is forecast to spend £83bn on debt interest in the next financial year, the highest on record
Fuel, energy and living costs
• Fuel duty will be cut by 5p per litre until March 2023 • Homeowners installing energy efficiency materials such as solar panels, heat pumps, or insulation will see VAT cut on these items from 5% to zero for five years • Local authorities will get another £500m for the
Household Support Fund from April, creating a £1bn fund to help vulnerable households with rising living costs • However, the OBR forecast that energy bills will rise by 40% again in October, if wholesale gas prices remain at the same level they are now
Taxation
• The income threshold for at which point people start paying National Insurance will rise to £12,570 in July, which Mr Sunak said was a tax cut for employees worth over £330 a year • Mr Sunak pledged to cut basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p on the pound before the end of this Parliament • The Employment Allowance, which gives relief to smaller businesses’ National Insurance payments, will increase from £4,000 to £5,000 from April
BCC gives response to Chancellor’s Spring Statement 2022
Giving her reaction to the Chancellor’s statement, Shevaun
Haviland, Director General of the
BCC, said: “The Spring Statement falls short of the action businesses needed to see today. While there are some positive announcements that firms will welcome, it did not fundamentally address the huge cost pressures they are facing.” “Businesses will be pleased that the employment allowance has been increased. This long running ask of the BCC will provide a small amount of financial headroom for firms facing rising costs.” “But today was a missed opportunity to rebuild and renew the economy and ensure business has the resilience to weather the uncertain and volatile times ahead.” “The cut in fuel duty, though very welcome, is just a drop in the ocean compared to the larger tsunami of surging costs that is bearing down on firms and households. Smaller businesses are particularly exposed as they have neither the protections or financial support provided to households, nor the negotiating power of larger businesses.” “As the economic outlook is likely to get worse before it gets better, many firms will be forced to continue raising prices, further fuelling the cost-of-living crisis.” “We urge the government to take further action – including the introduction of an SME energy price cap - to tackle the escalating cost of doing business crisis. Firms need the headroom to keep a lid on prices, protect jobs and make investment that is so vital to sustaining our economic prospects.” On the Chancellor’s priorities for the Autumn Budget, Director General Haviland said: “Businesses will welcome the Chancellor’s firm commitment to cut taxes on business investment, something chamber business communities have long called for. Turbocharging investment is crucial to boosting productivity, levelling-up and the transition to net zero.”
“We look forward to working closely with ministers on driving stronger business investment and reform to the apprenticeship levy and R&D tax credits.”
• For some time, prospective visitors to
Recycling Centres have been able to click on
How Busy is it? to access the on-line Queue cam feature which shows in real time whether cars are queuing to access the particular site; • Daily visits data is also used to highlight
Popular Times at each site when queues are more likely; • And when lengthy queues occurred at
Recycling Centres as lockdown restrictions were eased during the pandemic a new feature, Queue time, was introduced, offering an actual estimate of the waiting time before being able to access the site; • At the same time the What Can You Bring? feature, besides listing the materials which can be accepted at each site, also indicates whether any bins for particular materials are full or being emptied, helpful for example, at this time of year, when many people are clearing out their gardens and a lot of green waste is brought to the sites.
How DIGITAL INNOVATIONS are impacting on the waste sector in Hertfordshire and nationally
The new Ware Recycling Centre will shortly be trialling some even more innovative digital technology which will include: • Sensors in parking spaces to display which are free, rather like the numbers displayed in a post office queue to identify which lane to take; • An updated version of the current What Can You Bring? bin tracker using lasers to identify the capacity of each container and updating the web listing automatically as each container fills, or is being emptied; 44 INSPIRE
Stop single-use.coffee cups every year.
HertsWasteAwarewasteaware.org.uk/reusables
WasteAwarePartnership
HertsWasteAware
e carbon benefi t hidden in our clothing There are lots of ways you can reduce your organisation’s waste. Our top tips are: 1. For events, consider a magnetic / pin badge or lanyard rather than branded goods, as these are easier to replace if a name/ logo changes. 2. Buy work related apparel from ethical / sustainable brands. The premium paid often also means better quality, so they last longer and you need to buy less. Ethical Consumer has a list of how suppliers measure up. Reuse: 3. For businesses, reducing the clothing footprint could be as simple as washing and reusing uniforms after someone has left. Did you know that extending the average lifespan of clothes by just 3 months of active use would lead to a 5-10% reduction in carbon, waste and water footprints! 4. Consider hosting a clothes swap for staff (or clients). It is a fun way to extend the life of clothing by swapping with others. The average person only wears two thirds of what’s in their wardrobe. WasteAware can offer you rails and hangers for free to get you started. Fashion Revolution Week is 20-26 April 2020. Join in to make it the largest swap in history. For details contact WasteAware@hertfordshire.gov.uk Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. For a business wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, textiles may seem an odd place to focus. We generally hear about the three big areas that affect climate change – energy, transport and food. However, the textiles industry is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions. This means the clothes that we buy contributes to climate change more than air and sea travel combined. From growing and harvesting the raw material, to how they’re made, to crossing the world to get from factory to store, to the impact of washing them and how they’re disposed of, each item of clothing produced has a lifecycle carbon impact across the whole of a product’s life (the ‘cradle to grave’ impact). This is measured using kilograms of CO2 eq (or carbon dioxide equivalent), a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints. What has been found is a shocking amount of emissions and waste from both the production and disposal stage. Fast fashion is making clothing more disposable, with cheaper prices and less durable garments, meant to last out the season rather than years. This accelerates carbon emissions, causes increased global warming and sees more textile waste in landfi lls. 5. Use a guppy bag when washing The fashion industry is now taking steps to catch microfi bers shed during to move towards a more ethical and the process and stop them environmentally friendly supply chain entering the watercourse. and production methods, but it won’t change overnight. We need to play our Recycle: part in changing the use and consumption 6. When you are ready to part with a garment, of clothing too. WRAP (the Waste and see if you can donate it to a Resources Action Programme) estimates charity rather than send it to that in the UK alone, we consume around landfi ll. For those that can’t be 1.7m tonnes of textiles annually, and of used again by you, look into this more than 600,000 tonnes are sent to http://www.uniformreuse.co.uk/ landfi ll or incinerated. Remember, any small effort against the fast #RememberYourReusables: #RememberYourReusables: fashion trends makes a positive impact on the environment! For more see wasteaware.org.uk/reusables wasteaware.org.uk/reusables#RememberYourReusables: www.wasteaware.org.uk/textiles WasteAwarePartnership#RememberYourReusables:WasteAwarePartnership wasteaware.org.uk/reusables #RememberYourReusables: HertsWasteAware wasteaware.org.uk/reusables HertsWasteAware WasteAwarePartnership wasteaware.org.uk/reusables HertsWasteAwareWasteAwarePartnershipHertsWasteAwareHertsWasteAware
HertsWasteAware HertsWasteAware
Why is this relevant to your business?
We might be familiar with greener products and services – but looking inwards to the resources used is another angle to consider. Changing to more environmentally-friendly business practices will save you money and provide a stronger selling proposition when pitching your goods and services to your target audience. Why become more sustainable? Research shows that once consumers want to be associated with environmental or ethical products. A recent survey conducted by AYTM found that 71% of millennials are more likely to support an environmentally-friendly business. Likewise, 86% of customers say they prefer to shop at businesses that recycle, 74% prefer companies that limit the use of pollutants and unnecessary chemicals and 67% of shoppers prefer companies that support renewable energy. There is also evidence that many consumers want guidance on how their individual actions can help make a difference. Businesses are well-placed to help raise consumer awareness and understanding and, more importantly, change the way they consume. For example, did you know that every year, Hertfordshire residents throw over 7000 tonnes of textiles into their rubbish bins, when they could have been reused, repaired or recycled. Here at WasteAware, keeping textiles out the bin is a campaign we are actively championing. It is a three-pronged approach which you can easily adopt in your business and at home: • Preventing the purchase of new clothes (reduce) • Keeping clothing in active use for longer (reuse) • Recycling unwearable textiles (recycle) https://www.rapidformations.co.uk/blog/how-can-your-business-reduce-its-carbon-footprint/ https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/news/news-archive/2018/the-carbon-footprint-of-getting-dressed https://www.trustedclothes.com/blog/2016/02/23/fast-fashion-and-your-carbon-footprin/ When you are ready to part with a garment,
Keep in touch Sign up to our monthly e-bulletin https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/updateme/
Stop single-use.coffee cups every year.
HertsWasteAwarewasteaware.org.uk/reusables
WasteAwarePartnership
HertsWasteAware
e carbon benefi t hidden in our clothing There are lots of ways you can reduce your organisation’s waste. Our top tips are: 1. For events, consider a magnetic / pin badge or lanyard rather than branded goods, as these are easier to replace if a name/ logo changes. 2. Buy work related apparel from ethical / sustainable brands. The premium paid often also means better quality, so they last longer and you need to buy less. Ethical Consumer has a list of how suppliers measure up. Reuse: 3. For businesses, reducing the clothing footprint could be as simple as washing and reusing uniforms after someone has left. Did you know that extending the average lifespan of clothes by just 3 months of active use would lead to a 5-10% reduction in carbon, waste and water footprints! 4. Consider hosting a clothes swap for staff (or clients). It is a fun way to extend the life of clothing by swapping with others. The average person only wears two thirds of what’s in their wardrobe. WasteAware can offer you rails and hangers for free to get you started. Fashion Revolution Week is 20-26 April 2020. Join in to make it the largest swap in history. For details contact WasteAware@hertfordshire.gov.uk Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. For a business wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, textiles may seem an odd place to focus. We generally hear about the three big areas that affect climate change – energy, transport and food. However, the textiles industry is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions. This means the clothes that we buy contributes to climate change more than air and sea travel combined. From growing and harvesting the raw material, to how they’re made, to crossing the world to get from factory to store, to the impact of washing them and how they’re disposed of, each item of clothing produced has a lifecycle carbon impact across the whole of a product’s life (the ‘cradle to grave’ impact). This is measured using kilograms of CO2 eq (or carbon dioxide equivalent), a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints. What has been found is a shocking amount of emissions and waste from both the production and disposal stage. Fast fashion is making clothing more disposable, with cheaper prices and less durable garments, meant to last out the season rather than years. This accelerates carbon emissions, causes increased global warming and sees more textile waste in landfi lls. 5. Use a guppy bag when washing The fashion industry is now taking steps to catch microfi bers shed during to move towards a more ethical and the process and stop them environmentally friendly supply chain entering the watercourse. and production methods, but it won’t change overnight. We need to play our Recycle: part in changing the use and consumption 6. When you are ready to part with a garment, of clothing too. WRAP (the Waste and see if you can donate it to a Resources Action Programme) estimates charity rather than send it to that in the UK alone, we consume around landfi ll. For those that can’t be 1.7m tonnes of textiles annually, and of used again by you, look into this more than 600,000 tonnes are sent to http://www.uniformreuse.co.uk/ landfi ll or incinerated. Remember, any small effort against the fast #RememberYourReusables: #RememberYourReusables: fashion trends makes a positive impact on the environment! For more see wasteaware.org.uk/reusables wasteaware.org.uk/reusables#RememberYourReusables: www.wasteaware.org.uk/textiles WasteAwarePartnership#RememberYourReusables:WasteAwarePartnership wasteaware.org.uk/reusables #RememberYourReusables: HertsWasteAware wasteaware.org.uk/reusables HertsWasteAware WasteAwarePartnership wasteaware.org.uk/reusables HertsWasteAwareWasteAwarePartnershipHertsWasteAwareHertsWasteAware
HertsWasteAware HertsWasteAware
Why is this relevant to your business?
We might be familiar with greener products and services – but looking inwards to the resources used is another angle to consider. Changing to more environmentally-friendly business practices will save you money and provide a stronger selling proposition when pitching your goods and services to your target audience. Why become more sustainable? Research shows that once consumers want to be associated with environmental or ethical products. A recent survey conducted by AYTM found that 71% of millennials are more likely to support an environmentally-friendly business. Likewise, 86% of customers say they prefer to shop at businesses that recycle, 74% prefer companies that limit the use of pollutants and unnecessary chemicals and 67% of shoppers prefer companies that support renewable energy. There is also evidence that many consumers want guidance on how their individual actions can help make a difference. Businesses are well-placed to help raise consumer awareness and understanding and, more importantly, change the way they consume. For example, did you know that every year, Hertfordshire residents throw over 7000 tonnes of textiles into their rubbish bins, when they could have been reused, repaired or recycled. Here at WasteAware, keeping textiles out the bin is a campaign we are actively championing. It is a three-pronged approach which you can easily adopt in your business and at home: • Preventing the purchase of new clothes (reduce) • Keeping clothing in active use for longer (reuse) • Recycling unwearable textiles (recycle) https://www.rapidformations.co.uk/blog/how-can-your-business-reduce-its-carbon-footprint/ https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/news/news-archive/2018/the-carbon-footprint-of-getting-dressed https://www.trustedclothes.com/blog/2016/02/23/fast-fashion-and-your-carbon-footprin/ When you are ready to part with a garment,
@HertsWasteAware
Stop single-use.coffee cups every year.
HertsWasteAwarewasteaware.org.uk/reusables
WasteAwarePartnership
HertsWasteAware
e carbon benefi t hidden in our clothing There are lots of ways you can reduce your organisation’s waste. Our top tips are: 1. For events, consider a magnetic / pin badge or lanyard rather than branded goods, as these are easier to replace if a name/ logo changes. 2. Buy work related apparel from ethical / sustainable brands. The premium paid often also means better quality, so they last longer and you need to buy less. Ethical Consumer has a list of how suppliers measure up. Reuse: 3. For businesses, reducing the clothing footprint could be as simple as washing and reusing uniforms after someone has left. Did you know that extending the average lifespan of clothes by just 3 months of active use would lead to a 5-10% reduction in carbon, waste and water footprints! 4. Consider hosting a clothes swap for staff (or clients). It is a fun way to extend the life of clothing by swapping with others. The average person only wears two thirds of what’s in their wardrobe. WasteAware can offer you rails and hangers for free to get you started. Fashion Revolution Week is 20-26 April 2020. Join in to make it the largest swap in history. For details contact WasteAware@hertfordshire.gov.uk Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. Remember your reusables! The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Stop single-use. For a business wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, textiles may seem an odd place to focus. We generally hear about the three big areas that affect climate change – energy, transport and food. However, the textiles industry is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions. This means the clothes that we buy contributes to climate change more than air and sea travel combined. From growing and harvesting the raw material, to how they’re made, to crossing the world to get from factory to store, to the impact of washing them and how they’re disposed of, each item of clothing produced has a lifecycle carbon impact across the whole of a product’s life (the ‘cradle to grave’ impact). This is measured using kilograms of CO2 eq (or carbon dioxide equivalent), a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints. What has been found is a shocking amount of emissions and waste from both the production and disposal stage. Fast fashion is making clothing more disposable, with cheaper prices and less durable garments, meant to last out the season rather than years. This accelerates carbon emissions, causes increased global warming and sees more textile waste in landfi lls. 5. Use a guppy bag when washing The fashion industry is now taking steps to catch microfi bers shed during to move towards a more ethical and the process and stop them environmentally friendly supply chain entering the watercourse. and production methods, but it won’t change overnight. We need to play our Recycle: part in changing the use and consumption 6. When you are ready to part with a garment, of clothing too. WRAP (the Waste and see if you can donate it to a Resources Action Programme) estimates charity rather than send it to that in the UK alone, we consume around landfi ll. For those that can’t be 1.7m tonnes of textiles annually, and of used again by you, look into this more than 600,000 tonnes are sent to http://www.uniformreuse.co.uk/ landfi ll or incinerated. Remember, any small effort against the fast #RememberYourReusables: #RememberYourReusables: fashion trends makes a positive impact on the environment! For more see wasteaware.org.uk/reusables wasteaware.org.uk/reusables#RememberYourReusables: www.wasteaware.org.uk/textiles WasteAwarePartnership#RememberYourReusables:WasteAwarePartnership wasteaware.org.uk/reusables #RememberYourReusables: HertsWasteAware wasteaware.org.uk/reusables HertsWasteAware WasteAwarePartnership wasteaware.org.uk/reusables HertsWasteAwareWasteAwarePartnershipHertsWasteAwareHertsWasteAware
HertsWasteAware HertsWasteAware
Why is this relevant to your business?
We might be familiar with greener products and services – but looking inwards to the resources used is another angle to consider. Changing to more environmentally-friendly business practices will save you money and provide a stronger selling proposition when pitching your goods and services to your target audience. Why become more sustainable? Research shows that once consumers want to be associated with environmental or ethical products. A recent survey conducted by AYTM found that 71% of millennials are more likely to support an environmentally-friendly business. Likewise, 86% of customers say they prefer to shop at businesses that recycle, 74% prefer companies that limit the use of pollutants and unnecessary chemicals and 67% of shoppers prefer companies that support renewable energy. There is also evidence that many consumers want guidance on how their individual actions can help make a difference. Businesses are well-placed to help raise consumer awareness and understanding and, more importantly, change the way they consume. For example, did you know that every year, Hertfordshire residents throw over 7000 tonnes of textiles into their rubbish bins, when they could have been reused, repaired or recycled. Here at WasteAware, keeping textiles out the bin is a campaign we are actively championing. It is a three-pronged approach which you can easily adopt in your business and at home: • Preventing the purchase of new clothes (reduce) • Keeping clothing in active use for longer (reuse) • Recycling unwearable textiles (recycle) https://www.rapidformations.co.uk/blog/how-can-your-business-reduce-its-carbon-footprint/ https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/news/news-archive/2018/the-carbon-footprint-of-getting-dressed https://www.trustedclothes.com/blog/2016/02/23/fast-fashion-and-your-carbon-footprin/
Are you one of the Hertfordshire residents who made two million visits to the network of seventeen Recycling Centres across the county in the last year?
If so did you know that the individual Recycling Centres webpages include digital features to help residents plan their visit? • Online booking for Business waste. This new service started at the end of March 2022. Because the recycling centre at Ware is large enough for a weighbridge, business waste can be accepted – the vehicle is weighed in, the waste removed, and the vehicle weighed out. The difference is weight is the amount charged, according to which material was disposed of. The booking system enables businesses to specify the time of their visit speeding up turnaround time and minimising disruption on site. But it’s not just in facilitating the use of Recycling Centres that Hertfordshire WasteAware is innovating digitally. Using Facebook to make the most of items for sale within the network of Reuse Centres, for example the Ware Reuse Shop Facebook page, has been particularly effective. Site managers have been posting photos of new and interesting stock donated to the sites. These have built quite a following. When you are ready to part with a garment,Advertising in this way allows residents to see if there is anything they are interested in before making the journey to the site. Many people message in to request certain items, or to reserve items seen in the photos. Hertfordshire WasteAware has also successfully used social media to reach residents including with unusual requests for reusable items. When setting up a post-lockdown clothes swap,
www.wasteaware.org.uk @HertsWasteAware
we needed more clothes hangers. Instead of buying these, we put out a request on Facebook, Instagram and via the reuse centre pages to see if residents had any unwanted hangers available. The response was fantastic! Within a week we had two wheelie bins full of hangers, which have been used at each of the subsequent (and very popular) clothes swaps hosted around the county. The Government is also looking at digital innovations for national and international waste movements. The Digital Waste Tracking consultation was launched in January 2022. It seeks to replace existing public and private sector waste data recording systems, with a mandatory new system tracking wastes at each stage in the handling process. Starting with the waste producer which might be a householder or ‘professional waste producer’ e.g. a builder, details of the waste to be collected will be entered onto the online tracker system. For each waste movement the system will generate a unique identifier enabling it to be tracked at any stage from leaving the initial collection point through to its final destination, which could be landfill or incineration, or for recyclable items, a reprocessing plant at home or abroad. Once up and running the system should offer a much clearer overview of waste movements, with information readily available right down to the facility in the country of destination. As it happens the Herts Waste Partnership (HWP) already publishes much of this information annually for household waste and recycling on our webpage at What happens to your recycling?, but it takes a long time to compile from assorted spreadsheets and sources. The new system will generate this detail as a matter of course and with public accessibility. Timescales for bringing in this system are yet unknown. The HWP is responding to the consultation mindful of the value of transparency in recording the movements of waste. So, in conclusion, as you can see, digital innovation is central to many of the services in waste management both local and national helping with both the efficiency and the transparency of waste disposal, recycling and reuse.
