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Second incinerator windfall for council thanks to high energy prices

Enfield Council gets £1.58m cashback from waste authority after bumper profit

Edmonton incinerator
Edmonton incinerator

The operators of Edmonton incinerator have handed Enfield Council a second cash windfall thanks to higher-than-expected profits from electricity generation.

North London Waste Authority (NLWA) is handing £10.2million back to the seven local authorities that run it, which is more than double the initial windfall payments NLWA made last autumn.

The windfall is thanks to extra income received from electricity generation at the incinerator, which generates energy from burning of North London’s waste. Unlike most other energy companies, which have been issuing higher dividends to shareholders from their bumper profits, NLWA is publicly owned and can instead redistribute the cash to local councils.

Enfield Council will be receiving £1.58m from the NLWA’s cashback pot.

NLWA chair Clyde Loakes said: “While we all want to see energy prices normalise, in these exceptional times, rather than windfall profits going to private shareholders, NLWA can ensure that local people and communities can benefit instead.

“It also shows that having a wholly publicly owned, well managed facility is far preferable to paying vast sums to a private contractor to dispose of household waste.”

Across the 2023/24 financial year, NLWA will also reduce the monthly cost of waste disposal and recycling that its councils usually pay.

However, NLWA says the government’s new Electricity Generator Levy, which began on 1st January and includes energy-from-waste incinerators, will likely curtail future windfalls in future years.

Last year NLWA began construction of its hugely controversial replacement incinerator at Edmonton Eco Park, which will be a third larger than the existing facility. The project has drawn repeated protests from local environmental groups.

The current incinerator will continue to operate until the new facility is ready in 2026.


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