North Yorkshire Council
Environment Executive Members
24 October 2025
Review of Environmental Services Charges – 2026/27
Report of the Assistant Director – Environment and Transport
1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.1 To inform the Corporate Director of Environment and the Executive Member for Managing our Environment of charges made for waste services and to obtain approval to set charges for 2026/27.
2.0 BACKGROUND
2.1 North Yorkshire Council is a unitary authority and is responsible for both the collection and disposal of household waste.
2.2 To enable residents to subscribe to the garden waste service for the 2026 season from early January 2026, a decision is required on the garden waste subscription charge for 2026/27. To meet this deadline, this decision is being brought forward along with the charge for container provision.
2.3 The Corporate Fees and Charges approach for 2026/27 is that all discretionary fees and charges will be increased by 3.40%.
2.4 Last year it was agreed that that waste service fees and charges would increase by inflation on an annual basis without approval, unless inflationary increases fail to cover the cost of the service in which case approval will be sought to vary the charges. This report seeks approval to increase garden waste subscriptions and new and replacement container charges by above inflation in 2026/27.
3.0 CHARGEABLE WASTE SERVICES
3.1 As a Waste Collection Authority, the council is required by law to arrange for the collection of household waste in its area. No charge will be made by the council for household collections, except in cases where the law provides that a charge may be made, and the council has decided to recover a reasonable charge for the collection of the waste. Garden waste is a chargeable opt in service.
3.2 Container Charges
3.2.1 North Yorkshire Council can provide waste containers (“receptacles”) to householders in a number of ways, including the council supplying free of charge, by charging the householder or by requiring the householder to provide receptacles to the Council’s specification. A combination of wheeled bins, bags, and boxes are currently provided to North Yorkshire residents dependant on their locality. A harmonised charging structure was agreed as part of the fees and charges setting for 2024/25 however, due to limited transformation resource, implementation of the new pricing structure did not go live until 25 September 2025.
3.2.2 It is proposed that this years’ agreed charge of £35.00 per bin be increased by 3.4% + £1.00 rounded up to the nearest 50p, to meet the 2026/27 MTFS savings target of £100,000. This gives a proposed charge of £37.50 per bin. Appendix A shows the current charges for 2025/26 for the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The proposed increase would see charges in North Yorkshire rise above the current regional average of £35.57. North Yorkshire’s current charge of £35.00 is below the regional average but we can assume that this average will increase next year as the other councils also look to increase their charges.
3.2.3 The cost is an administration fee, and all bins remain the property of the Council. If bins are damaged or fail, except in the case of deliberate misuse, they will be repaired or replaced free of charge. If while emptying a bin it becomes lost in the vehicle then the crews will record this, and the bin will be replaced for free. If a bin is stolen, then we will encourage households to try and locate it prior to requesting and paying the administration fee. If households request, and meet the eligibility criteria for additional capacity, payment of the administration fee, which will cover delivery costs, will be required prior to delivery of the bigger bins. We will not charge for the delivery of boxes or sacks and charges will not apply as part of any wholesale roll-out of new containers to an area/round.
3.3 Garden waste opt-in service
3.3.1 2025/26 was the first year where the council was able to fully harmonise the charge for this non-statutory service.
3.3.2 The proposal is to increase this year’s charge of £49.00 by 3.4% + £1.50 rounded to the nearest 50p. This gives a proposed charge of £52.00 for the 2026 season from March 2026 to November 2026. Appendix A shows the charges for 2025/26 for the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The proposed increase would see charges in North Yorkshire stay below the current regional average, where a charge is levied, of £58.94. 6 out of 14 councils in our region provided the garden service in 2025 free of charge. The proposed charge seeks to strike a balance between levying a reasonable charge to recover our collection costs and maintaining subscriptions at current levels. Charges set too high could deflate demand and result in the council collecting additional residual waste which is undesirable from an environmental and financial point of view.
3.3.3 It is estimated that we will see around £314,560 of additional income for the season from garden waste based on an assumption that sign-up levels will continue to reduce by approximately 1% as was seen in the previous year. Promotion of the garden waste service aims to increase subscriptions and extend sustainable waste practices.
4.0 ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED
4.1 A lower inflationary increase could be applied to these charges, however as waste collection authorities are able to make a charge under the Controlled Waste Regulations 2012 and in comparison, to the Yorkshire and Humber regional average charge it is considered reasonable to apply an above inflationary increase.
5.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
5.1 The financial impact is set out in detail in the paragraphs above. In summary, this report proposes the financial impact shown in table 1. The proposed MTFS garden waste saving for 2026/27 of £100,000 will be reviewed once subscriptions open and the impact of the increased price is known.
Table 1: Summary of financial impact
|
Waste Service |
2025/26 est. income |
2026/27 est. income |
Difference (-cost/ +saving) |
|
Waste containers |
£212,300* |
£311,230* |
£98,930 |
|
Garden waste |
£6,120,118 |
£6,434,678 |
£314,560 |
|
Total |
£6,332,418 |
£6,745,908 |
£413,490 |
*Budgeted income
6.0 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
6.1 The power to charge for these services is included in Table 2.
Table 2: Power to charge.
|
Waste Service |
Power to charge |
|
Containers |
Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 46 (3) |
|
Garden waste |
Controlled Waste Regulations 2012 |
7.0 EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
7.1 Consideration has been given to the potential for any adverse equality impacts arising from the recommendations (Appendix B - EIA Screening Form). It is the view that the recommendations do not have an adverse impact on any of the protected characteristics identified in the Equalities Act 2010.
8.0 CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
8.1 Consideration has been given to the potential for any adverse climate change impacts arising from the recommendation. As the price increases are small and slightly above inflation, it is unlikely that there will be significant change to the current service demand in relation to garden waste collections and therefore it is unlikely there will be any changes to climate change implications. A Climate Change Impact assessment is included as Appendix C of this report.
9.0 REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
9.1 North Yorkshire Council is a unitary authority and is responsible for both the collection and disposal of household waste. To be fair and equitable to residents across the North Yorkshire Council area a common approach to waste fees and charges is required. It is proposed that bins, subject to criteria, will be charged £37.50 including delivery. Residents opting to subscribe to garden waste collections will be charged £52.00 per licence.
|
10.0 |
RECOMMENDATIONS
|
|
10.1 |
It is recommended that the Corporate Director – Environment Services acting in consultation with Executive Member for Managing our Environment approves: - i. The proposals for fees and charges for 2026/27 as detailed in this report.
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APPENDICES:
Appendix A - Benchmarking
Appendix B – Equalities Impact Assessment screening document
Appendix C – Climate Change Impact Assessment
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: None
Michael Leah
Assistant Director Environment and Transport
County Hall
Northallerton
24 October 2025
Report Author – Aimi Brookes, Service Development Manager – Waste
Presenter of Report – Michael Leah, Assistant Director Environmental Services