The roll out of a separate weekly food waste service has been delayed due to a lack of vehicles from the manufactures to deliver this service.
This is due to a large demand from a number of local authorities who, like Havering, are looking to roll out the service for the first time.
The delivery of the vehicles are now expected from January 2027.
This means the service will not start until Spring 2027, later than originally planned.
The Council remains ahead of some other Boroughs however, having already ordered its vehicles and is in the process of securing items such as caddies that will be provided to residents for the disposal of food waste.
Concerns over limited funding and the ability to deliver the service will also see the Council continue to lobby the Government.
This is because the funding made available to launch this new statutory service, does not cover all the costs.
It is also not clear what further funding will be available to run it once it is in operation.
The Government has made weekly separate food waste collections a requirement by law when it passed the Environment Act 2021.
This was for all Councils to have them in place by March 2026.
The aim of a separate weekly food waste service alongside the usual household and recycling collection, is to help further towards reducing waste across the borough and increase recycling as well as helping save money for residents through producing less waste.
Food waste collected separately, instead of in the general black waste bags, can instead be recycled into fertiliser and biogas for generating energy.
It means it will also further reduce reliance on landfill.
Councillor Martynas Cekavicius, Havering’s Cabinet Member for Public Realm, said:
“Sadly, like many other decisions, not enough thought has been put in place by the Government when passing new legislation and putting additional burdens on local authorities.
“We will start delivering the weekly food waste service as soon as we can get the right vehicles to do so, but we and all the other Councils who have to introduce this, are limited by what is available.
“We will continue to lobby the Government to ensure we to push for the right funding that is needed to not only provide this service but maintain it over time.
"Otherwise it will add additional pressure to our budget although there are long term savings to bringing this into place as less household waste means lower costs.
“In addition, separate weekly food waste collections will mean that scraps and left-over food can be put towards generating something useful such as electricity.
“We will continue to keep residents updated on this when we know more about vehicle delivery.”