England funding initiative to boost recycling As previously mentioned, Local Authorities all over England will receive extra funding to help recycling. A couple of days ago the Government announced the results of which councils had been successful in applications for a slice of the cake. A total of £42m this year from the National Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund to kick start new projects. The money will go to schemes to improve recycling and contribute to a better quality of life for residents. From over 190 applications to the fund for 2002/03, 112 schemes were approved by DEFRA with the help of an Expert Panel. The Government is now inviting applications for grants for 2003/04. Next year, £76.3m will be available from the fund; almost double that for 2002/03. The National Fund prioritises five key areas: improving partnership initiatives between authorities contributing to high performance, innovation and best practice establishing a challenge fund for general projects developing community initiatives turning around low recycling performance The assistance given by this Fund will aid some of the least successful recycling Authorities in their efforts to reach a minimum rate of 10% next year. Neighbourhood Renewal is also a key area of Government Policy and over half of the 88 NRU local authorities in England are low recycling performers. 21 NRU LAs were approved for direct grant, amounting to a total of around £14m. If you are interested in the detail of who got what, you can collect a small Excel file from DEFRA's website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2002/020625a-list.xls