by Shoppers face a £1 billion “toaster tax” under plans for a new set of net-zero rules, retailers and Conservative MPs have warned.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has unveiled plans to require supermarkets to “take back” used electrical items such as toasters for recycling, even if they were bought elsewhere.
The plans would also require online and high street retailers to provide a “free collection on delivery service” under which they would have to take out a customer’s old appliance, such as a washing machine, TV or fridge, if they were to deliver. a new one.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, told the Telegraph that the new requirements could cost businesses “£1 billion or more” a year – a figure that would be passed on to consumers through higher prices.
The Government insists that measures are needed to avoid millions of household electrical items going to landfill each year.
Plans are ‘terrible’
The plans risk restoring Tory ranks over net-zero load regulations, which the Prime Minister has pledged to avoid in favor of a “pragmatic and proportionate” approach to decarbonisation that would avoid undue pressures on households and businesses.
David Jones, the Conservative MP and former Brexit minister, said the plans were “appalling” and like a stealth “toaster tax”.
Official analysis accompanying the Government’s consultation document acknowledges that the cost of the scheme, although paid upfront by retailers, could be “passed back to consumers through higher prices” – despite Downing Street insisting that the focus is she is currently easing the “pressures” of the scheme. the high cost of living.
“It will be an invisible charge that everyone will pay,” Ms Dickinson said, adding that, contrary to Mr Sunak’s pledge to take a “pragmatic and proportionate” approach to net zero, “It doesn’t feel pragmatic.”
The Government’s consultation document outlining the proposed changes – which would be phased in from 2026 – states that they are part of a series of measures that will “impact the transition of the entire economy towards net zero”.
Miss Dickinson said: “We think so [the bill would be] in the hundreds of millions of pounds plus, and could be £1 billion or more.” The cost would be borne by retailers rather than being funded by income already collected through business rates and council tax.
Mr Jones added: “This is exactly the kind of burdensome regulation we thought we were getting rid of when we left the EU.
“This is a tremendous strain on businesses and the Government should have nothing to do with it. I think it’s completely unreasonable that they would expect retailers to do that.”
‘Shops may stop selling electrical goods’
The most controversial proposal is for “retailers with a turnover of over £100k of electrical sales per year to take unwanted electrical equipment back into the shop without having to buy a new item”.
Ms Dickinson said some shops may stop selling electrical goods to avoid being bound by the requirements.
If a large chemist sold electrical items such as hair clippers and hair dryers they would have to accept equivalent items bought in other stores.
Miss Dickinson said: “If retailers have to take in more than they sell, some who only sell small quantities may stop selling at all and the larger supermarkets may lose the ranges they offer. will also decrease, which would reduce choice for customers.”
Richer Sounds, the TV and hi-fi retailer, warned that its 50 stores were already “packed to the rafters” with stock.
Julie Abraham, the firm’s chief executive, told the Telegraph that the chain “did not have large empty rooms to store all the broken TVs, radios and speakers that may have been left in our stores under the proposed changes to the electrical recycling rules”. .
She added: “This means we would have to increase collections from our store to remove these items, increasing our carbon footprint and ultimately creating new costs for our business, the environment and our customers.”
‘We can’t do it for free’
Currys is also opposed to the plans, with Alex Baldock, the chief executive, saying the firm’s current recycling policy meant it accounted for “almost half of all retail technology recycling in the UK”.
Speaking earlier this month, Mr Baldock warned that retailers were already making just £3 on every £100, adding: “We can’t do it for free.”
The new series comes after the Telegraph revealed last week that ministers had angered Tory MPs by quietly introducing legal changes which would amount to a significant expansion of the new Labor Equality Act, which claimed the Mr. Sunak once said that “all kinds of nonsense have been allowed to creep through public life” and “it must stop”.
The latest revelations focus on a consultation underway into plans to require “producers and distributors” of electrical goods to fund “the full net cost” of recycling or otherwise disposing of used electronic products, in order to avoid going to landfill.
Ms Dickinson said the cost to retailers would include “opportunity costs” of lost space that would otherwise be used to store, display and deliver stock.
Currently, retailers with a turnover of more than £100,000 in electrical sales must take back unwanted electrical equipment when a customer buys a new equivalent version of the same item. The service is rarely advertised due to the additional costs that would be incurred by shops if they were to dispose of items other than old items at local authority recycling sites.
‘Plans will make it easier to recycle’
The Government wants to extend the current rules so that the duty on shops is “no longer linked to the purchase of a new item”. Shops would also be legally required to tell customers about their obligation to accept old electrical goods.
The consultation document suggested that one option is to limit the “take back” service to “equivalent” products to those sold by each store. That option would “avoid a situation, for example, where only a specialist electrical warehouse selling lighting products would be required to take back a toaster”, says the consultation document.
Miss Dickinson criticized the Government for failing to engage more widely with businesses about the proposals before they were published. The consultation will close on 7 March.
She said: “The Government has been in limbo for years and now they have announced proposals that are flawed because they have chosen not to co-operate with the retailers – who are vital to increasing the success of electricity recycling.”
Steve Pendleton, director of services at Currys, said: “At Currys we already operate a successful scaling solution that meets the objectives of our customers, the planet and is sustainable for our business. We strongly urge the Government to focus on harnessing the innovative and competitive nature of the entire retail industry to support everyone on a level playing field.”
A Defra spokesman said: “Each year millions of household electricity across the UK are thrown into the bin rather than recycled or reused properly. These proposals will make it easier for people to recycle electricity and drive the much-needed transition to a more circular economy.
“We have consulted widely on these plans, including with industry leaders and will consider all consultation responses before setting out the next steps.” Around 155,000 tonnes of smaller household electrical items, including cables, toasters and kettles, are thrown away in regular bins each year.
