Barnet's waste disposal cost is forecast at £31m a year from 2030/31, after the Edmonton incinerator contract rose from £885.1m to £1.25bn. It is £17.1m now.
Overview
Barnet’s yearly cost of getting rid of its rubbish is forecast at £31m from 2030/31, once the new Edmonton incinerator is running. Barnet will pay £17.1m to the North London Waste Authority this year. The authority, which Barnet runs jointly with six other boroughs, agreed on Thursday 12 November to finish the plant at a revised contract price of £1.25bn.
The authority announced the decision the same day. The original spending limit on the contract with the builder, Acciona, was £885.1m. The new price is about 41% higher, and the plant is now due to be handed over on 29 December 2029.
What was agreed
The authority’s members approved a settlement with Acciona, the firm building the Energy Recovery Facility at Edmonton EcoPark. Edmonton is in Enfield, about seven miles east of High Barnet. The plant will burn the rubbish of the seven boroughs’ two million residents that is not recycled.
The report to members sets out the terms:
- a fixed contract price, which the authority’s release puts at £1.25bn
- a new handover date of 29 December 2029
- risks from productivity, wage rises, inflation and industrial relations moving from the authority to Acciona
- the end of the existing disputes and arbitration between the two sides
When the contract was awarded, the authority’s managing director could spend up to £885.1m on it, the report says. The authority told a 2023 information request that the contract itself was let at £799.3m in January 2022.
The handover was first due on 9 September 2026, then moved to 14 May 2027. The report says Acciona’s own programme pointed to finishing in 2032 when the talks began. About £722m had been spent on the plant by 31 August 2026.
The detailed price breakdown is in confidential appendices. The report says the final contract value will be published in a Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency notice. The deal can be finalised 30 days after that notice is served.
What it means for Barnet
Barnet pays the authority a yearly levy to take and dispose of its waste, and that money comes from the council’s budget. Barnet’s levy is £17.1m in 2026/27 after balances, the largest of the seven boroughs. The authority’s early forecast for 2027/28 is £17.8m, a 4% rise.
The incinerator report gives each borough’s forecast cost once the new plant is running. For Barnet it is:
| Year | Forecast cost to Barnet |
|---|---|
| 2030/31, first full year | £31m |
| 2031/32 | £31m |
| 2032/33 | £31m |
| 2039/40 | £36m |
| 2044/45 | £39m |
| 2059/60 | £52m |
Across all seven boroughs, the forecast for 2030/31 is about £167m. The report says the same forecast in December 2023 was about £138m. It calls the new figure “a less favourable outcome than previously anticipated”.
The report does not say how much of the rise is the incinerator and how much is other costs. It lists a new food waste contract, plant running costs, interest rates and electricity prices among the changes.
Why the authority kept going
The authority says the plant is over 60% built. If it stopped building, the boroughs would face about £100m a year more by 2030/31, it says. That would cover loan repayments and paying private firms to burn or bury the waste elsewhere.
The report puts the total cost for 2030/31 at about £270m without the new plant, against £167m with it.
Cllr Jacob Cable, the authority’s chair, said: “At this late stage in construction and taking all the facts into consideration, we have come to the decision that it is in the public interest for the facility to be finished and for the new terms to be agreed.”
Members asked officers for more detail before the next budget, the authority said. That includes a fuller breakdown of the cost assumptions for boroughs and further work on how to control borough levies.
What happens next
The authority will bring a draft budget to its December 2026 meeting. The 2027/28 levy for each borough will be set in February 2027.
Barnet is also building its own transfer station at Geron Way, which the authority helps to fund. It is due to open in September 2027, the finance update says.
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