Waste charges: big hotels face bill of up to £40,000

Wednesday 17 May 2017

New liquid waste charges for businesses are due to come into force in March, and could be up to £40,000 a year for the larger hotels.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfL)has published more details on the controversial charges, which have already been agreed in principle by the States, but which still need the timescale confirmed by the Assembly in July.

Charges for solid waste will follow as well before the end of 2018, subject to a further States debate in September. 

DfL says that what they term "non-households" create 22% of liquid waste, which costs £3.85million to process, and that would be covered by the proposed charges:   an variable annual standing charge and a volumetric charge of 2.27/m3, based on 95% of the fresh water used. Businesses who use a lot of water, such as launderettes or hotels with big swimming pools, will pay a higher standing charge. 

This would mean that starting from 31 March 2018, hotels would be paying between £12,000 and £40,000 annually depending on their sizes, while pubs and restaurants would be charged over £3,000. However the Department says that those totals are 14% lower than current water bills and that the financial impact on users will be minimal equivalent to an additional cost of 8p on meals and of 37p per room in a hotel.

Deputy Eddie Noel, Minister for Infrastructure, said: "Over the last few months we have been engaging with businesses and although the introduction of new charges is never likely to be popular, we have had very useful dialogue. As user pays non-householder waste charges have already been agreed in principle by the States, we have only been able to talk about our proposals for introduction. 

"Businesses were keen to have as much advance notice as possible and by lodging now we have taken that into account. The debate is scheduled for July which will give an eight months’ lead-in. We have also been able to plan a phased approach to the introduction of the liquid and solid elements of the charges to businesses which reduces the impact for them."

The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel announced in April that they had started a review into the proposed solid and liquid waste disposal charges for businesses to ensure that they are "reasonable and fair."