Concerned scrap dealers believe the car scrappage scheme confirmed in the Budget on 22 April may have overlooked their dwindling industry.
The Government, which announced the scheme in the pre-Budget report, has put aside £300m in order to entice car owners with a £2000 incentive towards a new car if a person has a car older than 10-years old. This grant will be equally split between the Government and car manufacturers to encourage owners to trade in their old cars for scrap, in place of a newer model.
There are currently no details over how the to-be-scrapped cars will be distributed or which manufacturers have signed up.
Sunderland Metal Company managing director Bill Dalziel is not convinced. He said: “I don’t think the Government has thought it through. If someone brought a 10-year-old car to us we would issue them with a destruction note and then give them money for it, so the scheme has replaced this. Instead of car scrap we need people building houses, offices and ships in order to boost our business.”
European Metal Recycling director of business development Graeme Carus is worried: “The scheme is a good thing in general but I’m very concerned that it seems to be focusing on the car manufacturers only.
“There are two sectors concerned here – those who make the cars and those who scrap them. The car manufacturers will be taking the scrap from the car owners and so it could be the case that these scrap cars will only reach the approved treatment facilities and scrap dealers in the manufacturer’s own networks rather than opening the opportunities out to everyone.”
If this were to be the case, just a fraction of the approximately 1500 authorised treatment facilities would be used.
Cartakeback.com, which is currently managing Citroen’s similar scheme disagrees. Its manager Graham Price said: “I think the Government would prefer to use ATFs which are hitting their recycling target of 85% per car. It makes sense for manufacturers to use their own routes to scrap the cars because they know the ATFs are compliant.
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