BREW-ing UP A STORM

Nearly a million pounds earmarked to tackle resource efficiency in businesses in the North East will not be coming to the region due to financial incompetence at Defra, says Fiona Hall.

Fiona Hall, Lib Dem MEP for the North East, spoke at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference on Sunday exposing what amounts to a loss of millions of pounds designated to improve business efficiency throughout England.

Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) set up the BREW (Business Resource Efficiency and Waste) Programme in order to channel funds raised from collecting Landfill Tax from businesses back into businesses to increase efficiency. However, despite the closed-loop funding stream, Defra has decided to cut completely all funds given from the BREW fund to Regional Development Agencies, which are some of the main players in distributing these funds to regional delivery organisations.

Last year, ONE North East was given £1.1m from the BREW fund and ONE had applied for £880,000 for this year. However, ONE has had its application completely rejected, as has every regional development agency across the country. Based on the figures for the past two years, this amounts to a loss of around £11m this year nationally. And the total loss of investment is even higher, as European match funding used to support the programme will also be lost as a result of Defra's cut.

After bringing the issue to the attention of a record number of attendees at the Lib Dem Conference, Fiona Hall said:

“The truth is that Defra has a hole in its budget and is raiding the BREW fund in order to fill that hole. The BREW programme is supposed to be funded directly from businesses paying landfill tax. Diverting funding away from resource efficiency is extremely short-sighted as the quickest and cheapest way to cut carbon emissions is to use less energy and do business more sustainably.  

"What is more, this cut comes at a time when businesses are struggling to cope with ever-rising energy prices and desperately need support to become more energy efficient.

"The Government is reneging on a commitment to increase the efficiency of businesses regionally. I will be following developments closely and asking the Government to rethink this short-sighted decision.”