A ministerial move to help business become more efficient has been backed by the CBI.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has announced that £284 million from the Landfill Tax will be put into a programme to help businesses save money.

Environment secretary Margaret Beckett said that if businesses use the new services "they should be able to recoup the increasing costs of landfill by reducing the amount of waste they send to landfill as well as driving down energy use".

She added that the move would "help them become more competitive through cash savings and increasing resource efficiency".

The CBI gave its backing to the funding move.

"Given that this revenue is coming from business it is absolutely right that it is being spent to help business save money by cutting its production of waste and being more energy efficient," said Michael Roberts, the lobby group's director of business environment.

The cash is largely expected to go to schemes which are already being used by companies.

But the business organisation warned that it must be spent "as efficiently as possible".

"It is important that DEFRA puts in place robust systems to make sure that as much as possible of the money taken from companies in tax is used to directly benefit them," added Roberts.