The body for UK waste strategies, Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), has begun the New Year under added pressure as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has cut WRAP’s 2013/14 budget by 11 per cent and is set to begin a review into the body’s value for money.

Indicative figures from Defra show that WRAP’s budget for administration and programme costs will be reduced from £28.8 million in 2012/13 to £25.74 million in 2013/14.

This follows on from a 27.9 per cent drop in funding in 2011/12 and marks a larger-than-expected reduction in financing. In January 2011, it was understood that WRAP’s budget from Defra would be cut to £31.8 million in 2012/13, and then again to £30.1 million for both 2013/14 and 2014/15.

The review and budget cuts come amidst government’s ‘renewed focus’ on its expenditure both internally and externally in an attempt to reduce the budget deficit by £661 million between 2011/12 and 2014/15.

According to Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, Defra’s own budget will be cut by £20 million in 2013/14 and £35 million in 2014/15.

Defra has not yet released specific start or end dates for the WRAP review, but it is widely expected it will take place in the first half of 2013.

‘Delivery will not be reduced’

Despite the increase in pressure on staff and resources, a spokesperson for WRAP insisted that it is ‘entirely right and proper’ that its work is subject to ‘regular review’.

“Given the current economic climate and the challenges this presents us all, it is understandable that there is renewed focus by all of government on its expenditure both internally and externally.

“As part of this, Defra has advised us that it is undertaking a new review of WRAP and its work. At the same time, we have been advised that our budget from Defra for the next financial year will be cut by 11 per cent.”

WRAP added that the reduction in funding was ‘not unexpected’ and plans have already been put in place to focus on effective cost cutting.

According to WRAP, the body will manage the budget cuts by ‘focusing on the areas [that] have most impact and cutting back on others’. Programmes such as the Construction Sector Halving Waste to Landfill work ‘naturally’ came to a close in 2012 and is thus one area where WRAP is expecting to save money.

Highlighting that funding also comes from the Scottish and Welsh governments, WRAP said that it is “confident that WRAP’s impact and delivery will not be reduced” by Defra’s cuts.

“We have a strong track record of delivering value for money for all our funders, and will be taking the opportunity to demonstrate this as a part of the review process”, the spokesperson added.

Speaking at WRAP’s annual conference in November 2012, Chief Executive Liz Goodwin argued that boosting UK economic growth was at the heart of WRAP’s agenda. The organisation’s work, said Goodwin, had resulted in savings of £18 for every £1 spent, an increase in the UK’s reprocessing capacity of almost 50 million tonnes, and a reduction in material sent to landfill. It had also, she said, helped deliver £1 billion landfill tax savings for councils and businesses.

EA and Natural England merger proposal

The WRAP review follows on from a suite of scheduled reviews of government and government-funded bodies, including one in December that proposed the merger of the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England.

The EA/Natural England review – part of government’s rolling programme that examines non-departmental delivery bodies every three years – was launched on 12 December and will assess the functions the bodies carry out and how they do it to ‘ensure that… [there are] sufficiently strong and resilient delivery bodies to meet our environmental ambitions’.

Preliminary conclusions of the EA review, assessed by a group chaired by Dame Deirdre Hutton, Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, will be published in the spring.