The Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith is set to promise to scrap the Environment Agency and abolish Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR).
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, Griffith will promise to scrap the Environment Agency and Natural England, as part of a strategy to move towards a ‘a more streamlined regulatory landscape to protect our environment’.
The plans, according to multiple reports, include bringing the bodies’ necessary functions directly into the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Labour has rejected the Conservative’s proposals, arguing that it is already making both bodies more effective.
In comments to the media, Labour said the Environment Agency ‘now has both the officers on the frontline and the powers to go after illegal waste criminals’.
Conservative Shadow Ministers are also set to announce plans to abolish pEPR, calling it a ‘grocery tax’ and a ‘burden’ on business.
A survey of retail industry leaders by the British Retail Consortium found over 80% of EPR costs are likely to be passed onto customers.
