RETAIL ORGANISATIONS JOINTLY PETITION PARLIAMENT AGAINST LONDON BAG-BAN

29 January 2007

Legislation that would prohibit London retailers providing customers with shopping bags and create an army of council bag-ban enforcers with Revenue and Customs-style powers to burst into premises, demand evidence and issue fines, is being condemned by retailers of all sizes.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) and the BRC (British Retail Consortium) are uniting to use Parliamentary procedure to petition against the London Local Authorities (Shopping Bags) Bill tomorrow (Wednesday).

The ACS and BRC say the bill is excessive and flies in the face of a national voluntary agreement retailers reached with the Government only last year. They say councils should be supporting retailers’ moves to improve their own, and customers’, environmental performance, not wasting effort and money on pointless headline-grabbing gestures.

Retailers of all types are well on the way to achieving their commitment to reduce the environmental impact of bags by 25 per cent by the end of this year. Initiatives include; rewarding re-use and recycling, promoting re-usable bags, reducing the plastic in bags and using recycled plastic in bags.

Retailers stress carrier bags make up only a fraction of one per cent of waste going to landfill. A total ban would make virtually no environmental difference but would have a serious impact on customers and retailers. It would disproportionately affect impulse buys which are particularly important to convenience stores and make buying large or expensive items such as clothing, that need protection, almost impossible.

The ACS and BRC oppose local councils having legal powers in this area. They point out that it will damage the trading ability of stores just inside bag-ban boundaries and London Councils have done no work to assess the overall impact of a ban on London’s retail economy.

British Retail Consortium Director of Business Environment, Jane Milne said: "This is a gesture to grab a headline. It will do almost nothing for the environment.

"Carrier bags are not the great environmental evil. They represent a fraction of one per cent of waste going to landfill. Even so retailers of all types are already well on the way to meeting a voluntary pledge to achieve a 25 per cent reduction. Do councillors really believe Londoners want their money spent on a new army of bag-ban enforcers bursting into shops, demanding documents and searching for secret supplies of bags shopkeepers ‘held for provision to customers’?

"Local councils should be supporting retailers’ work, for example on increasing recycling, not damaging customers’ ability to shop and retailers’ ability to trade."

James Lowman, Chief Executive of the Association of Convenience Stores said: "London Councils are proposing a measure that would severely harm retailers of all kinds, but especially small stores. The proposal would ban not only giving bags away free but also making bags available for sale. This is excessive and economically very dangerous. As it stands they have done no analysis of the likely impact of this measure on the retail economy in London.

"We fully support reductions in the use of plastic bags and have made great strides on a voluntary basis. It is a shame that London Councils have proceeded at breakneck speed to this ill thought out and unworkable alternative."

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